‘Cancel culture’: Girl Guides CEO sacked over transgender tweet

A former Girl Guides CEO has blamed “cancel culture” after being sacked for criticising the group’s change to its definition of girl to include transgender people.

Former Girl Guides WA chief executive Karyn Lisignoli. Picture: Colin Murty

A former Girl Guides chief executive who was sacked for raising concerns about transgender policy claims the century-old organisation has “capitulated to a radical ideology that works against the rights of girls and women”.

Karyn Lisignoli was terminated as CEO of Girl Guides Western Australia in December, just over a week in the role, after she publicly criticised a recent change to the group’s constitution to define a girl as “any person under the age of 18 years who lives their life as female”, and a woman as “any person aged 18 years or older who lives their life as female”.

Ms Lisignoli had reached out via Twitter to women’s rights lawyer Katherine Deves, the head of Save Women’s Sport Australia, responding to a tweet about the UK Supreme Court ruling against gender-neutral passports.

“I’ve noticed our constitution panders to this ideology,” she wrote. “Can I DM (direct message) you to find the legal standing on this? If we change it back to biological female are we breaking the law?”

The exchange was picked up by LGBTI website OUTinPerth, which sought comment from Ms Lisignoli and Girl Guides and published an article. The next day she was sacked.

“I literally had my cardboard box ready,” the 55-year-old told news.com.au on Monday. “This is how cancel culture works – a CEO gets terminated on the basis of a tiny group.”

The tweet that got Karyn Lisignoli sacked.

Girl Guides WA chairwoman Yvonne Power told Ms Lisignoli her tweet had “exposed the organisation to serious reputational risk”.

“Your conduct has caused a serious and imminent risk to the reputation of the organisation,” she said in a December 18 letter.

“You made external statements that undermine the policy of the organisation and were made without due consideration of our governance structure. We consider that your actions constitute serious misconduct warranting summary dismissal.”

Ms Lisignoli said she had told Ms Power that “it’s not serious, what’s serious is this radical agenda” and that the organisation would be facing a “real public relations issue” when people became aware of the change.

“Average people don’t know (about it), particularly mums and dads don’t know,” she said.

Ms Lisignoli added she had safety concerns about biological boys sharing tents with girls and noted the inclusion of transgender members had already caused problems for Girl Guides UK, where an investigation was launched in November after social media posts showed a leader dressed as a dominatrix.

“It’s a safety issue,” she said.

“It’s absolutely true that not all men are predators, but some men are predators and what they do is go to spaces where they can access vulnerable people. If Girl Guides allow anyone to self-identify as female, that means male predators have the opportunity either to come in as unit leaders, or even young teenage boys who say, ‘hey this is cool, I’m identifying as a girl and get exposure to girls’.”

She added, “Violence against women is underpinned by our biology, that’s what makes us weaker. Women have been fighting for hundreds of years to get these rights under the law, and now we’ve got this radical agenda that’s throwing these rights out the window. It’s a very aggressive ideology – it’s not a science and it’s certainly not based in biology.”

Girl Guides WA is the only branch in the country to define girls or women in its constitution, but the national headquarters has drawn up gender inclusion guidelines that state an “an individual is to be considered the final authority on their own gender identity”.

The guidelines state that “the girl will participate in the same activities as all other youth members of your unit” and “this includes sleeping in the same area as the other youth members”.

Former Girl Guides WA chief executive Karyn Lisignoli. Picture: Colin Murty

Girl Guides Australia chief commissioner Rosemary Derwin told The Australian last week the guidelines had been drawn up to comply with state and territory anti-discrimination laws in 2018.

“There was never a push from the transgender community telling us to do that,” she said. “Girls and women who identify and live in the community as female are welcomed in our organisation.”

Ms Derwin added she did not know how many transgender children or adults belonged to the organisation.

“We don’t ask parents, is your daughter a transgender girl or a biological girl, as that would be discriminatory in itself,” she told the newspaper.

“All people are treated equally and with mutual respect regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. If a transgender girl goes to school as a girl, and her friends go to Guides, it’s important they can come too, otherwise it’s discriminatory.”

Ms Derwin said the group’s policy on gender had been publicly available before Ms Lisignoli took the job. “I think a CEO who comes into an organisation and is fundamentally against your membership ­criteria, that’s a little bit challenging,” she said.

In response, Ms Lisignoli told news.com.au she had been brought in as a “change agent” given her long experience in the not-for-profit sector, and had already made a large number of changes in her first week.

She viewed the gender inclusion policy as within her remit to adjust.

“The overwhelming mission of Girl Guides I completely aligned with,” she said. “A CEO’s role is to be the change-maker and identify those issues that are going to be of concern.”

She blamed “a theory called critical social justice” that had been “making its way through our institutions for decades”, starting in the universities.

“These young people have come up and are often the people running large corporations and charities,” she said. “This ideology has been seeping its way through without the general population knowing, and we’re now getting laws to enact it.”

Girl Guides Australia chief commissioner Rosemary Derwin.

Ms Lisignoli said she had been in the civic sector for a long time and was “well aware of this ideology and its terrible impact, and I’ve also seen that so many people just aren’t aware” of it.

“So when I realised Girl Guides had also capitulated, I knew the parents and the general community didn’t know,” she said.

She believes the Girl Guides policy is out of step with WA’s Equal Opportunity Act 1984, which protects “gender reassigned” persons who have undergone surgery and been issued a recognition certificate.

“It protects gender-reassigned persons – not gender self-identity,” she said.

“Very few trans women have transitioned, a lot just self-identify. Even the ones who have had surgical intervention, only about 30 per cent of them have had genital surgery. People don’t know the reality.”

She added, “It’s staggering that the rights of that biological male override the rights of all those biological girls.”

Girls Guides Australia national CEO Trish Manten told OUTinPerth there were no plans to change the organisation’s stance on inclusion.

“Girl Guides Australia will continue to review policies in accordance with our governance requirements and with consideration to legislative changes,” she said.

“We value diversity and Girl Guiding Australia is committed to providing a respectful, open and safe environment where all people are treated equitably and with mutual respect regardless of their background, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or level of ability.”

In an emailed statement, Girl Guides WA CEO Reachelle Beasley said the group followed the Girl Guides Australia “Child Safe Child Friendly Framework”.

“The Framework complies with Australia’s National Principles for Child Safe Organisations and signals the ongoing commitment of Girl Guides to provide girls and young women with an environment where they are safe, protected, and respected, and where they can discover their potential as leaders of their world,” she said.

“The Framework provides clear guidance for everyone involved in Girl Guiding to understand their role in helping to keep children and young people safe, and to build on the Child Safe Child Friendly Community that is central to Girl Guiding in Australia.”

Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was “blindsided” by five rebel MPs crossing the floor to vote against the government’s religious discrimination bill, citing concerns about lack of protection for transgender children.

On Sunday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews issued a statement slamming the “unnecessary, divisive, hurtful” debate in Canberra.

“All kids deserve protection,” Mr Andrews wrote on Twitter.

“Gay kids, trans kids – all kids, no exceptions. If the federal government wants to change that, then we will do everything in our power to protect LGBTIQ+ Victorians.”

Originally published as ‘Cancel culture’: Girl Guides CEO sacked over transgender tweet