Two of the UK’s most prominent women’s organisations — Girlguiding and the Women’s Institute — will no longer admit transgender members, citing legal risks following a Supreme Court ruling that defined “woman” strictly as a biological female.
Girlguiding announced that trans girls and young women will no longer be eligible to join, while the 110-year-old Women’s Institute said it would now restrict membership solely to biological women.
Both groups stressed the decisions were not ideologically driven but were forced by the court’s April judgment, which found that expanding ‘woman’ to include transgender identities under the Equality Act would create legal “incoherence,” particularly around rights tied to pregnancy, maternity and sex-based protections.
The ruling stemmed from For Women Scotland’s challenge to a Scottish Government policy, and has been widely backed by gender-critical campaigners, including author J.K. Rowling.
The decision reflects a broader shift across UK sport and public bodies: the Football Association, British Rowing and other national organisations are already moving to bar transgender women from female categories, and reports suggest the International Olympic Committee may soon follow.
Finally some commonsense, but no doubt Girl Guides and WI in Aotearoa will welcome them with open arms. Let’s hope New Zealand goes along with what the UK says.
About time !!!!
Hats off to For Women Scotland for taking it to the supreme court and to JK for proving the no doubt considerable costs involved.
The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion were remarkably prescient for a “forgery”.
Excellent news
It should not have taken the Supreme Court for common sense to prevail. My son knew this at the age of three, when he told someone he really wanted to go to girl guides because his sister really enjoyed it but he wasn’t allowed because he had a penis.
Good on them.
Slowly some sanity is returning to the world