Safe spaces are not segregation.
It isn’t segregation for women to want women-only spaces. It isn’t segregation for gay people to want gay bars. It isn’t segregation for welsh male voice choirs to only have male voices. It isn’t segregation to have a ‘ladies in finance’ networking organisation. It isn’t segregation to have BAME working groups in political parties.
Any group has a right to seek out spaces where they can share their experiences with other groups who share the same background as them. This is not a new, controversial or unusual thing. My work has twenty different committees - a women’s network, an LGBT network, a BAME network, a parents’ network. None of this is remotely comparable to segregation.
Segregation was a specific act of oppression forced upon Black people by white people for the specific purpose of limiting their power, reducing their opportunities, preventing them from accessing wealth and depriving them of a range of basic civil liberties. It was one of the most unjustifiable atrocities ever wrought on any group of people in the history of the world.
So please, just stop. Stop watering it down and claiming you’re a victim of segregation thanks to the mere existence of a board which doesn’t cater to your particular experience. Stop acting as if this board sets a new and dangerous precedent when mumsnet is filled with specific boards catering to different groups already, none of which are the cause of any controversy whatsoever. Stop with this painful ignorance and entitlement.