A Vote on Trans Women Joining Women's Institutes

Not a member but women's spaces should be women's spaces. I support the women in this petition.

This is yet another attack on womens safe spaces. Do not allow this. It’s an insult to women everywhere.

Not a WI member, but I think the members should decide for themselves whether or not to allow trans women to join the WI.

The WI is a woman’s organisation and has been since it’s inception, it’s not a place for trans woman who are men. Please enough of this erasure of woman by men in dresses. It’s time to rake back what’s rightly yours a d that’s your rights freedoms and respect as biological woman.

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Hold the line

Reasoned debate is vital.

WI members have been forced into the decision by the National Board without consultation, they should remember who votes For them in the future. I thought we were a democracy

We must protect single sex spaces. Women have been second class citizens for too long, and this policy means that women must still make room for men.

Women should have the right to organise themselves as the female sex class

Women are under siege!

I was a member of Stoke Newington, but moved.

I am unclear how WI can distinguish between a transvestite, and a transexual person 'living as a woman'. What does this term even mean? and against what parameters is someone going to make this assessment? I simply cannot comprehend what 'living as a woman' could possibly mean..other than an extremely regressive stereotypes...that women have been kicking against for generations. Evidence suggests, Male pattern violence is unchanged by gender transition. WI are exposing women to risk, demanding they enforce a policy that is subjective and arbitrary. Many women, by personal choice/trauma, or respectful of the cultural requirements of their community or faith, are unable to access mix sex environments. How is WI going to square this policy with the communities in which they operate? Trans women have male energy, male confidence and male entitlement. WI risk excluding a wider cohort of marginalised and socially isolated women. There is a very particular sort of man, the one who won't take 'no' for an answer who is intolerant of womens privacy and autonomy, one who would like nothing better than the liberty to control women by occupying their space and eroding their safety. Again where do WI intend to draw the line between transvestite and transwoman 'living as a woman'. They might not be the same cohort, and there may well be a clear division between the two groups...but until you can show me how I tell the difference I'm steering clear of all womens only spaces. Last year I completed a survey about WI and my interest in joining ..I am in the demographic WI wish to grow. I am very interested, but have ruled it out for now, as long as there is a mixed sex policy.

Trans women are not women They are biologically male. I dont believe in Creationism either, but I do believe women are entitled to the safety, dignity and privacy that single sex spaces provide for them

I would love to join the WI but will not do so whilst they allow men to join.

The WI should be a sex based organisation and a safe and comfortable place for women. Not a member and won’t consider it while this policy is in place

Women's Institutes have always been places for women, not biological men. Women need single sex spaces more than ever these days for various reasons. Biological sex is not the same as gender. The single-sex and separate-sex exceptions in the Equality Act provide for service providers to lawfully set sex-based rules and to expect people to comply with them. Women are being eroded, let down, and silenced more and more. this has to stop.

Why would I join a women's organisation that is includes men?

Members should have been consulted.

Women deserve spaces which are theirs alone & free from males (however those males 'identify'). This policy flies in the face of everything the WI has and should stand for - FEMALES!