The national Girlguiding charity has confirmed that transgender girls and young women who are members will have to leave the organisation by 6 September.
Trans girls and women volunteering in roles open to women only will also have to leave their current positions by that deadline, the charity said this week.
Girlguiding’s deadline announcement came after the charity’s board decided in December that no new memberships would be offered to trans girls and young women, following a Supreme Court ruling in April last year which decided that “woman” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to “biological sex”.
The Women’s Institute also announced in December that it would not offer formal memberships to transgender women from April 2026 due to a “risk of costly legal challenge and potential regulatory action from the Charity Commission”.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) produced a draft updated code of practice, but this has not yet been approved by the government.
The Charity Commission has called for the EHRC’s updated code to be published “as soon as reasonably practicable” and plans to update its own guidance for charities afterwards.
In the meantime, the commission’s approach since the ruling has been to “accept that it can be a reasonable decision for trustees to await the final statutory guidance, or alternatively to seek legal advice relevant to their charity’s position and make changes as they consider necessary”.
Volunteers ignoring change could face probe
Girlguiding said it would not ask volunteers to carry out any additional checks that trans girls have left by 6 September and that it is “committed to treating everyone with dignity and respect”.
However, it said that if any volunteers themselves chose to “stay in a role which they know they are no longer eligible for, then this would be reviewed and investigated as part of our normal complaints procedure”.
Alongside the deadline announcement, Girlguiding published information about the support available to young members affected by its policy changes.
Youth mental health charity YoungMinds has agreed to offer tailored support, it said, as well as Gendered Intelligence, Mermaids, Mosaic Trust and Proud Trust.
Memberships for trans boys and young men will not be affected by the changes, Girlguiding has said.
Girlguiding has also set up a taskforce of around 500 people to explore new future opportunities for trans girls and trans women to connect with and be supported by the charity.
While it will not reverse the charity’s decision to change its inclusion policy, the taskforce’s panel of 16 people is meeting regularly until the end of this month.
Suggestions made so far include new Girlguiding-branded activities for girls to show allyship with the trans community.
