Now, finally, we have our movement back. But it’s bittersweet for me. I can’t imagine going back to an organisation that gaslit parents for more than 10 years.
I had been a Guide leader for 10 years when, in 2018, I raised concerns about boys being admitted as members and men being allowed to become Guide leaders if they identified as trans. When I set up a small private Facebook group to discuss her worries, someone passed a screenshot of me remarking that a “single gender” group didn’t mean anything. Girlguiding put me under investigation and then called me for a meeting, at which I was told that I could no longer run my unit or attend meetings with my own daughter.
I appealed the decision unsuccessfully and later that year I started legal action on the grounds of discrimination against my protected “gender critical” belief. In the meantime my suspension continued – even during lockdown, when meetings moved online, I was unable to attend Zoom meetings with my daughter so that she could join Rainbows.
During my legal battle, I discovered that Girlguiding wouldn’t even commit to telling parents that there might be a boy or man in their daughter’s unit. It claimed that collecting data on sex was “sensitive”.
In 2022, I settled my case with Girlguiding, by which time the charity had spent a six-figure sum on fighting to keep admitting boys into what is supposed to be a girl-only organisation. As well as paying my costs, it promised that gender-critical leaders were welcome in Guiding. But by this time I had had enough. My daughter is now happy in Brownies and plans to move on to Scouts when she is old enough. I feel vindicated by Girlguiding’s recent decision to stop admitting boys as Guides and men as leaders, and to require any who have already joined to leave by September.