Gender controversy embroils Girl Guides as sacked CEO warns of ‘cancel culture‘

‘A classic case of cancel culture.’ How a now-sacked CEO and a feminist lawyer locked horns over Girl Guides transgender rules.

Karyn Lisignoli was sacked as Girl Guides WA CEO after questioning its gender policy. Photo: Colin Murty

A sacked Girl Guides executive has blasted the organisation’s “cancel culture’’ for opening membership to anyone identifying as a girl or woman.

Karyn Lisignoli was dumped just days into her new job as chief executive of Girl Guides Western Australia after seeking legal ­advice on changing the membership rules to “biological females”.

Her dismissal spotlights the tension between freedom of speech and the legal obligations to protect transgender Australians from discrimination.

The Guides’ decision to let members self-identify as female could also set a precedent for ­enrolment at single-sex schools, following the Morrison government’s botched attempt to change discrimination laws this week.

The Girl Guides WA constitution defines 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”.

The wording alarmed Ms Lisignoli, who used Twitter to message women’s rights lawyer Katherine Deves, the head of Save Women’s Sport Australia, to seek legal advice.

“I’ve noticed our constitution panders to this ideology,’’ Ms Lisignoli wrote, in reference to Ms Deves’ tweet about the UK ­Supreme Court ruling against gender-neutral passports in December. “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?”

An LGBTI+ website, OUTinPerth, noticed the tweet and published an online article exposing the new chief executive’s criticism.

The next day, Ms Lisignoli was given her marching orders in a ­letter from Girl Guides WA chairwoman Yvonne Power, who terminated her employment because the tweet had “exposed the organisation to serious reputational risk’’.

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

“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.’’

Save Women’s Sport Australia boss Katherine Deves. Picture: Nikki Short

Speaking for the first time about her dismissal, Ms Lisignoli said she was seeking legal advice because she worried about the safety implications of girls sharing tents with men or boys identifying as female. She insists the definition of girls and women used in the Girl Guides WA constitution is “ideology not biology”.

“This is a classic case of cancel culture,” she said on Friday. ­“Inclusion has been taken too far.

“If we include trans girls who are biological males, they can go to mixed-sex school camps.

“There is a reason why there are certain situations in which we say men can’t be present. Do parents know when they send their nervous and shy 12-year-old girl to Girl Guides that she might be camping in a tent with a biological boy of the age of 15? They might identify as a girl but they are a biological boy.’’

Ms Lisignoli said the inclusion of transgender members, staff and volunteers was causing problems for Girl Guides in Britain.

Girlguiding UK revealed last November that it was investigating Instagram photos of a transgender Girl Guide leader dressed as a dominatrix and wielding what appeared to be a fake assault rifle.

Girl Guides WA is the only state or territory branch to give a definition of girls or women in its constitution.

But the national headquarters has drawn up guidelines on ­inclusion and gender diversity, which state that “an individual is to be considered the final authority on their own gender identity’’.

They state that “the girl will participate in the same activities as all other youth members of your unit”.

“This includes sleeping in the same area as the other youth members,’’ the guidelines say.

Denying transgender people access to bathrooms is a form of discrimination, the guidelines state.

But if a girl transitions to ­become a boy, they must quit Girl Guides.

“As an all-female organisation, (Girl Guides) are no longer the right place for members who have transitioned to male,’’ the guidelines state.

Girl Guides Australia chief commissioner Rosemary Derwin

Girl Guides Australia chief commissioner Rosemary Derwin said 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 said 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 said.  “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 Guides’ policy on gender had been publicly available before Ms Lisignoli took the job as chief executive.

“I think a CEO who comes into an organisation and is fundamentally against your membership ­criteria, that’s a little bit challenging,’’ she said.

Ms Deves said Ms Lisignoli’s dismissal showed the difficulties of harmonising a range of rights and freedoms.

“It seems to me that the former CEO gave primacy to the precautionary approach to young girls’ safety. That was certainly an approach reasonably open to her, for which I don’t think she can be properly criticised,” Ms Deves said.

A Girl Guides WA spokeswoman said the organisation stood by its commitment 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”.