My WI group folded this week

Also I could sign with a completely different signature that isn’t legally binding…

Well I ll sign my form and cross out the bits I dont agree with and see what happens…If the villagers with their pitchforks arrive at dawn I’ll let you know..

I have now seen (after digging about after this thread) the policy. The declaration to sign IS just to say that I was born female (or in the WI words 'registered female at birth' which in my mind is TRA speak anyway, just not quite as bad as 'assigned female at birth'). But it's also that we agree to abide by all the policies, including 'supporting the sisterhood' and all the other things mentioned by others up thread.
I will not be signing and so I guess I have been to my final WI meeting, at least until there's some new women at the top that actually care about women.
I don't care if they infer it's because I am horrified TW can't join. I can't help what they decide it means in their deluded heads as they've clearly chosen to word it in such a way that they can take what they want from it whether women sign it or not, but by not signing it, I'm at least not actually SAYING I agree.

I agree Juliette

I suppose it's so WI can cover themselves legally

What’s going to stop a biological man identified as a woman and lying and signing the form saying he was born a woman? Because some trans people are so deluded they’d argue it’s true and that they have a female penis 🤷‍♀️

I mean I know the WI can’t exactly do genital checks but I’d have thought that signing a piece of paper is fairly meaningless.

@JustAnotherWhinger I think that's a really good idea

making anything official seems to involve a lot of palaver these days.

Petra didn't 'transition' or 'crack her egg' (as I saw described in the WI 'speaker' report) until 2018, and there was a lot activist work going on from 2010. I wonder if groundwork had been laid before that. 🤔

Just googled and this ⬇was one of the first links that came up! Very interesting to read it now.....

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4820740-remember-petra-wenham-the-first-transwoman-to-be-on-the-wi-mag-cover

Oh yes, I remember Petra. I never knew who he was related to.

But who on earth thought the WI was important enough to infiltrate?

I'm not sure of the exact circs, but have heard that someone who is related to a senior figure in the current WI management level is trans.

I don't think there was any spontaneous embracing involved. More a case of "who you know".

I'd be interested in any further information on this.

Good for you!

Time the ‘W’I fell over then, isn’t it.
I hope that a new grass roots organisation for women will rise like a phoenix.

Please report this.

Please also report them for discrimination on the basis that they seek to exclude people on the basis of a philosophical belief protected under the Equality Act.

the new WI declaration, which would have obliged us to sign that we agreed with the WI upholding the law on being single sex (well yes, obviously!) but also that we agreed that TWAW
I thought that it was decided that GC and GI were both belief systems and therefore nobody should be discriminated against for having either belief. How can they insist that members believe TWAW?

Among the long list of things I don't understand about gender ideology is this: how come the gender extremists managed to infiltrate the WI of all places? I get how, or at least why, they wanted to infiltrate Girl Guides, or the NHS, or the NSPCC, or the big media organisations. But who on earth thought the WI was important enough to infiltrate?

The alternative explanation is that they didn't infiltrate at all, and that the leadership spontaneously decided to embrace the idea that men can be women. What a thought.

No we can’t be part of the WI.

We’ve gone with a private friends group and invitation only so that nobody has the right to join us. Keeps things nice and clear. We’re essentially a group of friends who happen to be hiring the hall to get together. Instead of subs we’ve all paid for one weeks hall hire each and we’ll work out the rest as we go.

I think I may have said this before, but some time ago, my local wi group disappeared and a new, identical group with a different name appeared in its place. It is identical in every way in the way it organises, with a great range of activities and a waiting list to join, but it is no longer on the federation list.

I have no idea why they did this - there may be many other gripes they have with the organisation. But it seems to be flourishing.

So your group are all in agreement

But you are not allowed to set up as officially part of the WI? Have I got that right? Because if you did all agree then I can't see why it would have to be private invitation only - unless it's just that the WI won't let it continue in its current form.

So generally, it sounds like the official position of the WI is that they do not want to be women only.

once again, as with the last 22 years, I wonder what I'm missing.

@Mauvish1 do you think there's someone in the group who passes? Or do you think it's part of a broader mission for the WI?

The issue for the WI is that their old policy (the mealy mouthed nonsense "living as a woman") has now quite rightly been declared illegal. But they could have men "LAAW" who they allowed to join, which now can't be allowed. So we all have to sign (just one time I think) to say that we are actual women. I don't really give a shit what support the "be nice" brigade want to offer outside of membership because all the activities arranged are for members only and always have been. And I won't be going on any TWAW bollocks so that's fine. Because TWAM.

Given that WI is a charity (registered educational charity (charity number: 803793 in England & Wales, apparently), I'd feel like reporting the NFWI to the Charity Commission for playing fast and loose with monies raised for other charities at a local level.

See how the NFWI likes them apples.

ETA typo

Create your own group. We broke away from our original women's group and founded our own

I am a WI member. This is correct

now which part of "biology and lived experience" applies to a TW?!

I suppose in Uptonspeak, we are all biological, and alive, and have experiences of that.