The British Girl Scout Association and a network of women’s organizations have announced they will stop accepting transgender girls or women as members to comply with a Supreme Court ruling.
Girlguiding, which has some 300,000 “guides” aged 4 to 18, indicated on Tuesday that it would now only include members whose biological sex at birth was female, a “difficult decision” that it took “with a heavy heart”.
Measure taken with regret
The national federation of Women’s Institutes, women’s organizations based at the local level, also announced on Wednesday that it would no longer accept trans women from April 2026, with “the greatest regret and deep sadness”, according to its president Melissa Green.
The two associations say they must comply with the judgment of the British Supreme Court, which ruled in April that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. A decision which has consequences on the access of trans people to hospitals, associations or sports clubs.
Girlguiding administrators say they acted after receiving “legal expert advice” and consultation with members. But according to the BBC, the association was threatened with legal action from a parent who felt that it was not respecting the high court’s decision.
This change will not apply to current “guides” at this time. The organization says it does not collect information on gender and therefore does not know how many of its members are transgender. The national federation of the Women’s Institute, for its part, “has proudly welcomed trans women for more than 40 years.”
Single-sex spaces prohibited
Shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the UK’s Equality Regulator (EHRC) issued interim guidance banning trans people from using single-sex spaces such as toilets, changing rooms, or certain areas in hospitals.
She submitted her final version in September to the Minister for Equality, Bridget Phillipson, who has not yet made a decision on this sensitive subject, leaving businesses and organizations in the dark.
The Trans+ Solidarity Alliance organization has raised concerns about freedom of association in the UK, regretting that “groups that have welcomed trans members for generations” are “at the mercy of legal action that forces them to betray their own values”.
