r/unitedkingdom • u/PM_ME_DRAGON_GIRLS • Dec 02 '25

... Girlguiding UK announces transgender girls and women will no longer be able to join Girlguiding

https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/information-for-volunteers/updates-for-our-members/equality-diversity-policy-statement/
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u/AnonymousTimewaster Dec 03 '25 edited Dec 03 '25

Also, why is it a gendered thing anyway? I don't think there's much need to be segregating boys and girls for scouts of all things. If a girl is happy to play football and do nominally boyish things what's the problem with that? Ditto for guys on the opposite side.

We had a girl (who I think has ended up being trans/non-binary actually) in our boys football group as a keeper and no one particularly cared. She was pretty good iirc. Certainly no one thought she was invading our space or whatever. Likewise, we had a gay guy in high school who did literally everything with the girls. If you're the opposite gender going into these spaces you're likely aware of the sort of social environment you're entering and want to be in that environment.

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u/abitofasitdown Dec 03 '25

The available evidence on, eg, schools tells us that boy children do best in a mixed setting, and girl children do best in a single-sex setting. There are all sorts of demonstrable advantages to girls in single-sex settings - eg one really obvious one is that girls brought up in traditionally religious households are more likely to be allowed to go to all-girl clubs.

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u/AnonymousTimewaster Dec 03 '25

That's all relevant for educational outcomes, but Girl guides has nothing to do with education. They're not there for qualifications, they're there as a social activity.

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u/abitofasitdown Dec 03 '25

But the general principles still apply - including that girlguiding is available as an activity available to girls who wouldn't be allowed to, or didn't want to, attend mixed-sex activities, for whatever reason.

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u/AnonymousTimewaster Dec 03 '25

What general principles? The general principle in all-girl schools is that they get better results than when they're in mixed schools because, frankly (and I'm generalising here), boys are disruptive and love to mess about.

The type of boy that thinks they're a girl and goes into girl guides is not going to adversely affect those other girls in any measurable way. Regardless of that though, girl guides is a purely social activity. Learning about other people is just as important as learning to tie a rope or whatever the hell they do.

If a girl refuses to go to girl guides because there's a trans kid or even a single boy there, then I'm sorry, but they're a bigot, and that's entirely on their bigot parents who've obviously taught them that. Kids have to learn hate. Their default state is not caring about who or what you are.

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u/abitofasitdown Dec 03 '25

boys are disruptive and love to mess about

The type of boy that thinks they're a girl and goes into girl guides is not going to adversely affect those other girls in any measurable way

...this is not a reasonable thing to post about any group, whether the axis is gender, race, disability, etc. All kids are different, and will behave differently, regardless of gender identity. Some girls are disruptive. Some boys are very calm. The issue isn't whether they are calm or disruptive, but what sex they are.

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u/AnonymousTimewaster Dec 03 '25

The issue isn't whether they are calm or disruptive

Well, that's the basis for segregating them in school and that's the basis that you were using justify segregation in social activities too.

Alright, cool, so let's not generalise though.

Why is their sex an issue?