Guides expel leaders over trans policy

THE Girl Guides are embroiled in a row over the group’s transgender policy after two leaders were expelled for questioning the plans.

On Friday, Helen Watts, 33, was told her membership was being revoked as she was unwilling to follow the group’s diversity and inclusion policy and for calling a fellow member a “nightmare” in a private Facebook group.

Ms Watts, who signed a letter to The Sunday Times in April asking for a review of the policy, had her membership revoked, along with one other signatory. The open letter was signed by 12 volunteers in total.

The Guides published a new policy last year which states that male-bodied members should be allowed to share facilities with other girls if they identify as trans, and that information about whether group leaders or other children are transgender should not be shared with parents.

Ms Watts told The Daily Telegraph: “We need to be sensitive, compassionate and kind to a trans child. But we also need to be sensitive, compassionate and kind to a girl who has just started puberty when asking her to share a changing room with a girl who she until recently has known as a boy.”