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The Women's Institute is to revert to being an Institute for Women

(294 Posts)
Doodledog Wed 03-Dec-25 13:45:21

www.thewi.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases

It appears that the WI, along with Guiding, has finally accepted that the law applies to them as well as to the rest of us.

I am not a WI member, so much of what I know is from reading things like the thread on MN where a member's husband was refused membership as he doesn't 'live as a woman'. He took them to court, as they did allow transwomen to be members, so it was his lifestyle, not his sex that precluded his membership. Nobody can define what 'living as a woman' means, lifestyle is not a protected characteristic, and sex is legally based on biology, so it appears that he has won his case - I don't see how he could have lost, really.

Both the WI and Guiding express deep sorrow and regret at their decisions and are clearly 'giving in' grudgingly, but AFAIK neither asked their membership's opinions on things like having boys in tents with girls, or men at meetings supposedly for women, and from which men who don't claim to 'live as women' are excluded - the policies were imposed, not voted in.

I assume it's obvious that I approve of the policy reversals. At one time I would have argued that a very occasional man who had transitioned should be allowed in the WI, (although I would probably not have approved on teenage boys being in the GG), but since the recent forcing of the TRA agenda onto policies of various types my desire to protect women and girls has trumped a wish for everyone to live and let live.

It was apparently discussed on Women's Hour this morning, but I have been out all day, and missed it. Did anyone hear it, please, and if so, was anything discussed that contradicts my take on it all (ie that a women's and girls' groups should be for women and girls)?

Doodledog Sun 14-Dec-25 13:45:11

Nobody is arguing about women's rights to parent. What Rosie and Lemonjam are doing is correcting the erroneous statements you have made about the right to be on a birth certificate when you have not taken part in the conception of the named child, and others (me included) have called into question other claims you have made that don't stand up to scrutiny.

Rosie51 Sun 14-Dec-25 13:48:45

Thanks Doodledog I was beginning to wonder if what I was typing was totally unintelligible.

Nanananabatman Sun 14-Dec-25 13:48:59

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Nanananabatman Sun 14-Dec-25 13:51:36

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LemonJam Sun 14-Dec-25 13:52:53

In response to my direct question to you N " have never used the words "I'm sticking by that statement" so will accept you were not being pejorative to me in your 13.38 post- unless you respond otherwise.

I do have legal experience, however you've now clarified though you don't know whether your friends 8 years ago were seeking to change the birth certificate after they had originally entered the sperm donor's name and that they did not know their rights at the time.

Hopefully now you understand it is possible for 2 gay female parents to have both names entered on their child's birth certificates and the legal route to achieve this.

I accept, and as far as I've read on this post nobody has disagreed with the fact that of course gay parents have the legal right to be parents.

Nanananabatman Sun 14-Dec-25 13:55:03

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Nanananabatman Sun 14-Dec-25 13:58:49

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Nanananabatman Sun 14-Dec-25 13:59:57

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LemonJam Sun 14-Dec-25 14:00:46

I would like to reassure you I have not sought to put you on trial and I support women's rights. You did assert married women should both have the rights to be on the birth certificate. Hopefully you may accept that I sought to reassure you they do in fact have that right.

Nanananabatman Sun 14-Dec-25 14:06:01

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mollygo Sun 14-Dec-25 14:12:33

If reading posts you don’t agree with, from people who hold different viewpoints from you, or who correct any errors/misconceptions you post exacerbates your problems, including the PTSD you mentioned, I’m surprised you’re still arguing.

The advice for people unfortunate enough to suffer from PTSD is this.

No, you should not deliberately expose yourself to situations that caused your trauma without the supervision of a mental health professional.
Attempting to do this on your own can be dangerous, potentially leading to re-traumatization, increased anxiety, emotional shutdown, or a worsening of your symptoms.

Nanananabatman
You said
I don’t think men should be allowed into women’s spaces but I think women and trans women should.
You’re missing the point. TW are male ergo not women.

Maremia Sun 14-Dec-25 15:02:11

N&P posts are usually very 'lively' and 'robust', but there is much more to GN than these Threads.
The books and history ones are full of useful information to share and enjoy.
Have a look on the 'Chats'.

Nanananabatman Sun 14-Dec-25 15:15:01

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Doodledog Sun 14-Dec-25 15:51:48

Nanananabatman

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Yes you have😀. Amongst other things, you have claimed claimed to be proud to be out and gay, yet also unable to leave the house. You claimed your feminine friend had things thrown at her for being 'a bit on the tall side' and that other friends had been asked to leave the Ladies by male security guards.

I'm not sure what PTSD has to do with your arguments about trans rights on a thread about men in the WI, but I don't see a lack of compassion - just a refusal to let untruths about men in women's places (and similar issues) stand. The history of threads about these things is such that we do that - maybe more assertively than on other threads - particularly when words such as 'cis' and 'terf' are used. Your own posts have been 'robust', so I don't know why you are unhappy when posters respond in kind. You can't tell people not to quote you. People do that so that the part of a post they are responding to is clear. It stops people from saying that their words are being twisted.

Finally, the comments about the birth certificate weren't pedantry - they were correcting false information, which is what happens when people post things that have been misremembered or are otherwise untrue. The comments were not unkind, just correct.

Doodledog Sun 14-Dec-25 15:52:45

Oh. The previous posts have been removed. HQ, please feel free to delete my previous one if it might cause distress?

Oreo Sun 14-Dec-25 15:57:30

I think that Nananabatman has left the thread.

Doodledog Sun 14-Dec-25 16:26:36

Yes, that’s why I posted to say my post might be removed.

Galaxy Sun 14-Dec-25 16:39:46

Thankyou GN HQ for the support on this thread. I have always been thankful that here and MN are places where we can talk about this.