Girlguiding and the Transgirl

 

Yesterday Girlguiding UK made an important announcement regarding what has become a thorny issue as it effects children and young people in many contexts from school to things such as scouts and girlguides, that of gender idenity as it applies to single sex settings which for reasons of decency may be needed as much as much of society is more mixed.

I try to aviod much of the often heated discourse around that on here although the unilateral action of the Scouting Association to make Scouts co-ed agains B-P's teachings and with no consideration to its impact on GirlGuiding is one that still burns to this day.

The position in Scouting on the outset was one of Scouts for Boys, Girlguides for Girls which generally worked well for 99% of children and often there was co-operation at the local level when it came sharing reeources or planning joint events.

Anyway while I do believe that and am personally sympathetic to anyone not least children who may feel their sex and their gender do not align and experience issues with that, the issues we have are not really around that so much as the person while they are said to be transitioning.

Few children in the UK undertake what is described as "gender affirming surgery" mainly because the issues involved long term require a level of informed consent they, themselves at 16 or under cannot give (at least in Law).

Thus in our world of Scouting a child who is Transgender comes with all the physical build of the sex that was recorded on their birth certificate and this does have implications for changing facilities, toilets and showers at camp as a Transgirl would look and resemble a boy when changing and so on.

In Girlguiding specifically there is a clear emphasis on it being a movement of and for just girls so given nearly all Transgirls would not of physically transitioned and the Cass Review caselaw they would be seen as Boys having them could mean legal challenges by Girls parents one of which was due before the decision.

The only way under the Law presently to avoid it would be to ditch that whole "For and By Girls" ethos - and some of us think having single sex spaces has value even if for many schools isn't like that.

Personally I feel some accomodation of long term social transformation would be possible with due care and planning where it was clear a sense of gender dysphoria existed AND this part of long term plan for that child as "she" transitions fully.

It is unfortunate in some respects and this change brought about through legal advice will not be applied retrospectively which is as fair as it gets. One hopes and more "give and take approach to accomodating the minority of children within the context of being in a Girls space.