Girlguiding, the largest girl-only youth organization in the
United Kingdom, recently updated its rules, which apply to members from five to
25 years of age, “to allow members who were born male but now identify as
female to share changing rooms, toilets and sleeping quarters with girls when
away on excursions,” according to London’s The
Telegraph. “The Girl Guides will allow boys who identify as female to shower
with girls, it has emerged,” The
Telegraph reported. What could go wrong?
The
107-year-old charitable organization’s new guidance, issued on the group’s
website, says that “the use of gendered facilities,” including showers, “can
cause anxiety,” adding: “Members are allowed to use the facilities of the
gender they self-identify as.” We can all remember from our school days that
showering together, even as one sex and basically the same age, can cause
anxiety. One doubts whether having males of various ages-- who happen to identify as females—showering together
with actual females of various ages will put everyone at ease.
Girlguiding’s
Chief Executive, Julie Bentley, said that the organization follows the
requirements set out in the Equality Act of 2010, which mandates that
organizations providing single-sex services treat people according to their
acquired gender. (One acquires a
fishing rod or a new television, not a new gender). Ms. Bentley stated: “In
line with our values of inclusion, we welcome any young person who self-identifies as a girl or young woman.”
Don’t mind the beard and the boner!
The
government of the UK recently announced that adults can legally challenge their
gender without facing “demeaning” rules that require people to undergo a formal
medical diagnosis. I am sympathetic to their plight, as I myself am a wildly
successful four-year-old thoroughbred racehorse whose chosen pronoun is
“stallion,” and I sure as hell don’t want to be subjected to a demeaning formal
medical diagnosis or evaluation.
Incredibly,
the new guidance states that it is not “best practice” to inform parents that a
trans person will be attending a residential event. No, it’s best practice to
let a 13-year-old boy who claims to be a girl to shower with actual young
ladies.
The
Telegraph article stated that David Davies, a Conservative MP for Monmouth in
South Wales, recently told The Mail,
“If transgender girls who are physically male are going to be sharing
facilities, it’s going to make some girls threatened and uncomfortable and the
Guides shouldn’t be doing that.” What a whacko! Lock him up!
There
is a report that states the organization offers “girls a place where they can
really be themselves with other girls and share the experience of growing up as
a girl in today’s world.” No. It actually, explicitly, does the opposite. It
offers boys a place where they can pretend they are not who they really are.
The
Girl Guide’s gender guidelines state: “’Girl’ is based on gender identity. This
means that any child who self-identifies as a girl should feel safe and welcome
in our girl-only space regardless of the sex that they were assigned at birth.”
First of all, it isn’t a girl-only space anymore. And, the phrase “assigned at
birth” calls to mind a doctor with a clipboard and a magic marker walking
through a nursery alternately calling out, “Girl-boy-girl-boy-girl-boy-girl-boy”
without checking under anyone’s hood. Madness.
The
article concludes by stating that “It is not known how many transgender members
are in the guides.” I’m guessing two. But there are sure to be more after this
decision and the publicity generated by articles such as this.
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