When the campfire singalong turns revolutionary

Just a few hundred metres down the road from where tourists were gathering outside the gilded gates of Buckingham Palace, a typical April Saturday of sunshine and showers was the backdrop for the most recent protest organised by Guiders Against Trans Exclusion (GATE). 

Invited by a Guiding instructor friend, I joined the vibrant crowd lining the pavement opposite Girlguiding’s London shop. Although we were gathered there to stand against the heavy, cruel reality of Girlguiding UK’s trans-exclusionary policies, the afternoon passed by jubilantly as we sang various songs from the world of youthful campfire singalongs that had been adapted into protest anthems. 

To the tune of ‘A Pizza Hut,’ we sang along: “A GATE protest, a GATE protest, a big trans flag and a GATE protest… For all girls, for all girls, we wanna be inclusive cos trans girls are girls.”

We swapped out the lyrics of ‘London’s Burning’ to chant “Trans girls welcome”, and later sang “Protect our sisters, build them up: make the revolution beautiful” to the tune of ‘I Want it Louder’ by Luke Wallace.

We were reaffirming the joy, community and creative hope at the centre of Girlguiding and the act of progressive protest, whilst standing defiantly with the trans community against the cruel material consequences of our institutions bending the knee to culture wars.  

With the idiosyncrasies of the guiding world overlaying the world-changing potential of protest, it was a particularly unique demonstration with a strong community spirit. At various points it was wittily remarked that “the revolution will be risk assessed”, and trans flag-coloured badges with that same slogan can be bought from GATE’s website.

Craftivism flourished as friendship bracelets were handed out during the protest, faces were painted in blue, pink and white, and the pavements below us were chalked with drawings of flowers and messages of solidarity. Only the day before, many of the same activists were counterprotesting TERF group 199 Days Later’s attempts to march on Downing Street. 

Although a far cry from such direct confrontation, GATE’s wholesome protest was a rallying cry of communal unity in equal measure, with joyful singing at the very centre of this growing people power.  

For all girls?

GATE formed in the wake of Girlguiding’s announcement last December that trans girls and young women were no longer allowed to join the organisation in the UK. This decision was a result of growing legal pressure from billionaire-funded gender-critical groups such as Sex Matters following April’s Supreme Court ruling. 

Without any mention of these threats, Girlguiding’s announcement unequivocally stated: “like every charity we have to follow the law.” In doing so, they absolved themselves of any responsibility to have explored other alternatives, despite the fact that the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s draft guidance on how to apply the Supreme Court ruling was months away from release at that point. 

While their original stance promised that existing members would be unaffected by these membership changes, Girlguiding’s March update declared that all trans girls and young women members must leave the organisation by 6th September of this year, and trans women had to vacate women-only volunteer positions. Couching their “difficult decision” in softening, conciliatory language, their update ended with a section titled ‘Our ongoing commitment to inclusion’ – an insult to the heartbreak many members and volunteers have felt since December.  

Kate (whose name has been changed for anonymity), one of GATE’s organisers, tells me that what GATE represents most is hope and community. Many adult volunteers and instructors are facing a difficult choice: to leave an organisation they feel betrayed by but nonetheless still means so much to them, or to stay for the sake of the kids in their unit, knowing that leaving could result in the unit disbanding altogether. At least 200 volunteers have already resigned, and many more have signed intent to resign letters, with numbers expected to escalate further after 6th September.  

At GATE’s largest protest to date, here I found a community where people grieving the sense of belonging they once found in Guiding could make their voices heard, and find support and solace. Stretching beyond the capital, 12th April also saw coordinated demonstrations across Birmingham, Edinburgh, Bath, Norwich and Belfast, whilst messages of international solidarity emerged from Guides and Guide leaders across the globe.  

Make a promise, keep a promise 

At the core of GATE’s work urging for Girlguiding to reverse their membership policy is the steadfast belief that trans exclusion contradicts the very values of guiding itself. 

“People within Girl Guides, Girl Scouts, and within the wider Scouting community in general, make promises to be kind, helpful, and respectful of others,” Kate tells me. “This is something that has happened for over 100 years and it’s a big part of the history of the movement. For many people, this isn’t just something you do to become a member, it is a promise you make that you live by in all aspects of your life. Girlguiding has broken this promise by excluding trans girls and women, who have been openly included within guiding for many years.” 

Girlguiding’s policy change is eroding away the organisation’s fundamental beliefs. During the protest, we heard testimonies from different volunteers, leaders and instructors affected by the December ruling, one of which laid bare the extent of their reactionary betrayal. ‘Rainbow Girl’ chronicled a seven-year-old trans girl’s experience finding a welcoming community in Guiding, where she knew that she belonged just like every other girl there. It was a powerful testament to the importance of trans-inclusive spaces for gender non-conforming youth, and it was revealed that the story was originally posted by Girlguiding themselves in 2022, before being shamefully removed from their website last year.  

Real hurt and distress for trans youth has come from Girlguiding U-turning on their own values of respect and inclusion, with one heartbreaking testimony coming from parents of a 6-year old girl who attempted genital self-harm with a pair of plastic scissors after being told they weren’t able to return to Guiding. A scan of Girlguiding’s page-long ‘support following changes to our equality and diversity policy’ reveals an organisation drowning in its own admissions of guilt and the harm it’s causing.

Loudly proclaiming “For trans girls we will fight / every day and every night!”, GATE’s hope is that Guiding’s membership change can be reversed, and that they can become a beacon of hope demonstrating to all that trans-exclusive policies are neither wanted, nor acceptable. 

GATE’s protest songbook 

In keeping with the protest’s inclusive nature, protest songbooks were handed out featuring lyrics of the chants and songs we sang throughout. Dotted across the hastily-folded pages were an array of broader protest motifs, including “show me what community looks like / this is what community looks like!”, various chants affirming our support for the trans community, such as “say it loud and say it clear: trans girl guides are welcome here!”and a slew of much loved campfire songs adapted and sharpened towards GATE’s mission. 

 In the weeks since the protest, I’ve found myself singing back many of these campfire-turned-protest songs, my mind ensnared by their catchy, memorable hooks and left contemplating their revolutionary message. Part of their effectiveness derives from the fact that the building blocks of what makes a great singalong tune for kids of all ages isn’t dissimilar from what makes a powerful protest chant or song: both need to be highly accessible, instantly memorable and clear in their message. Often there’s call-and-response, repeating phrases or melodies, and a strong sense of rhythm. 

Here the history of singing in guiding intertwines with the global lineage of protest singing, which stretches as far back as the 17th century in the UK whilst also possessing diverse roots from songs of the American civil rights and anti-war movements to tunes sung at anti-apartheid protests within South Africa, where song was a vital weapon of the asymmetrical struggle. 

As Kate tells me, “songs have been shared for millennia, and that is seen across the guiding and scouting community with different countries having different variations of these songs as they have been passed down over time. It adds a larger sense of power and community to our protests that we are not just saying words, we are singing songs that have been shared across the globe and have real meaning to those attending.” 

Compromised institutions, people power 

In recent weeks, the contested legal battles for trans rights have yielded mixed results, with the University of Sussex’s 6-figure free speech fine overturned in a reaffirmation of the university’s equality policy that “transphobic propaganda… will not be tolerated,” whilst American anti-abortion campaigners ADF are threatening Parkrun with legal action over their trans-inclusive policies. 

Alongside Girlguiding, last December also saw the Women’s Institute capitulate to lobbying and legal pressure groups to adopt a trans-exclusive membership policy, albeit with greater transparency and commitment to supporting and engaging with trans women through alternatives beyond formal membership. 

The EHRC’s segregationist draft guidance now has 40 days to be challenged by MP’s before it becomes statutory guidance and crystallises this legal minefield for trans-inclusive services and organisations. By partially admitting that the guidance will be detrimental to the UK’s trans community, half of the whole ugly truth is spoken out loud: this was never about safety, but about hatred. 

If our institutions continue caving under the weight of rampant transphobia, pushed by oligarchs and billionaires with the means to create existential legal threats, and enabled by a compromised, complicit and anti-democratic government more than willing to throw marginalised communities under the bus, it’s in the power of grassroots communities that we should look for change, togetherness and liberation. This is what GATE stands for as a microcosm in the broader post-EHRC struggle for trans rights in the UK, and through their communal protest singing, truths once whispered around campfires are spoken to power for all to hear. 

“Girlguiding taught many of us that when we stick together and support each other, we can achieve great things, which echoes the feelings our protests nurture. That if we stand together against injustice, we are loud and our collective voice is heard.” 

Indeed, the revolution will be risk assessed.