I occasionally attend a lesbian social group that meets at a couple of local venues each month. It was started a few years ago by a woman who invited a group of friends and acquaintances and has grown to several hundred women. Maybe 20-50 meet at any one time and it's mainly word of mouth or the occasional 'How about meeting at XX? on Thursday?' type stuff via FB.
So far it seems, barring one odd encounter, to have been lesbian and bi women only, with the odd attention-seeker asserting themselves as non-binary and being tolerated with a lot of eye-rolling. Now a couple of those who attend once in a blue moon have gone on the attack and demanded that transpeople not only be permitted to attend but that the woman who started the group and administers the FB page add T to the description of the group and add a statement welcoming transpeople.
You're here on Feminism Chat, so you can imagine how it's going. Three lesbian TRAs telling everyone who doesn't agree that they are stupid and terfs, half-a-dozen non-feminist women saying 'Let's just be lovely and welcome anyone/everyone who turns up to our lesbian event' versus a couple of older radfems with nothing much to lose saying what we say on here every day. And then 300+ lesbian women sitting at home watching this play out in dismay and wondering whether they next time they turn up for an evening with the lezzers at the pub they're going to have to sit next to someone with a beard who wants to talk about their new life as a woman.
The TRAs are saying it's illegal under the Equalities law for lesbian women in a friendship group that meets in public places to exclude transpeople. I am sure it isn't but when I turned to a couple of people who I thought knew more than me, they started saying 'Ah, well... it's a grey area' and then seem to tie themselves into knots.
Is it? Is there any reason a bunch of self-selecting people who use the title* 'Xtown Lesbian and Bi women's social group' and meet voluntarily in public places are legally required to add T to their title?