Transgender row as girls who want to be boys ‘helped to leave’ Guides

GIRLS who identify as boys are being encouraged to leave the Guides, leaders claimed yesterday.

The organisation has recently broken with tradition as a single-sex movement to welcome boys who identify as female.

But it said yesterday it will also ‘support young members who identify as boys to move on from guiding’.

The charity has denied it is banning girls who say they are transgender from joining, or withdrawing their membership.

Guiding leaders have now attacked the new ‘transgender inclusion’ policy. Carrie Wheeler, 37, a Girlguiding leader for five years, told The Times: ‘If Jenny Smith says she wants to be known as Joe Smith, they’re saying, ‘‘we don’t want you’’. ‘That’s so cruel and very, very unfair. It’s also really hypocritical.’

But in a statement yesterday Girlguiding insisted: ‘Our clear policy is that we will support young members who identify as boys to move on from guiding if, and when, they choose to and at a pace that suits the young person.’