Can we stop a man coming to our women's group?

[AuthenticVoice]

Does anyone know what the UK law states about this?
It's a tiny local women's group, barely even regularly attended.
He's a middle aged bloke saying he identifies as female and wants she / her pronouns. The usual. He's also exceptionally creepy and acts out a lot in other ways.

Is it even legally possible for any women's spaces to refuse or ask such men to go somewhere else these days?

Our area is exceptionally well served with things for either men and / or trans people to join up with. I feel that it's a deliberate targeting. Ideas?

It's true sadly. They're targeting on purpose -or- are special cases of being extra unwell and creepy, they get kicks out of invading female space I think.

There are now also some women who have transitioned to appearing as male through surgery and hormones and they'll be having a menopause at some point.

Our local community hub runs yoga classes . Several mixed , one men only and one women only .
A man claiming to be a woman wanted to attend the women only one . Organiser said no . Women in group said no . Hub Ctte said yes so end of women only group !
I wonder how many women who identify as men demand to be in men only groups such as Masons ?

What else does he do? Could there be a way to ban this individual going on behaviours to avoid the ball ache? If it is a targeted thing, you can guarantee crap flung at you.

OP, I would create a WhatsApp/email group for your members (minus the man obviously) and have the meeting at different houses each week.
As a pp said no one has any right to enter a private residence.

Alternatively, invite husbands, sons, male partners etc for a few weeks and I'm sure he'll be off when he has to face up to other men. I'm not trying to say you can't handle yourself, I just think the type of man he is will find it more uncomfortable.

I suspect he's looking for a reason to cry transphobia anx have a little bit of attention 🙄

The former implies the latter. A man pretending to be a woman IS creepy.

This is the problem, it's not my group but the organiser is wanting to grow it and advertise it. Plus it's slightly facilitated by the local authority. People drop in and out. Obviously plenty are not going to come back because of this issue. Including me!

It's for that very reason it's caught the attention of a creepy man in the first place.

The fact he is prepared to call the police (and expect to use the ladies etc) indicates he is just looking for trouble, be unpleasant, and on a power trip.

I am wondering (as this group is tiny) whether you can say so sorry but this group is being wound up and not operating anymore and just come back under a different name which does not have 'women's group' implied. Almost a safe word that does not attract attention - the seahorse reading group or something like that.

OMG the entitlement of some MEN. Women find themselves a cosy little FEMALE ONLY chat group, for support, and laughs, and tears, and to share stories; and a big fucking hairy arsed bloke has to muscle in. Drives me fucking batshit!

@AuthenticVoice I would, as some posters have suggested, cancel it and start it up again on a different day, and keep it more of a secret.

Slightly different slant, but some years ago when I first came to this village, a woman here had a 'ladies group' that she held in her big 6 bed house, that had lots of living space. She held it in the huge 26 X 20 foot lounge, and around 20 to 22 women used to go to it. I joined around summer 2014 after being asked to it. (It had been going for about 3 years when I joined...)

6 months or so after I joined, a woman who recently moved to the village overheard me chatting in Church to someone, and this woman started discussing it, and asking if I was going on Thursday This woman pushed her neb in, and asked 'oh can I come?' (Cheek!) I said I would ask the leader/host, which I did, and she said 'er yeah OK then.' I felt so awkward asking, and I'm not sure she wanted anyone else joining.

After 5 or 6 weeks this new woman started asking if her (male) partner could come. 'He would enjoy this!' she said excitedly. The host said 'no, it's a group for women.' The woman said 'oh but there isn't one for men!' The host said 'maybe he could start one?'

Long story short, the woman kicked off, said the host was being very sexist, and actually 'breaking the law' by not allowing a man in. Fact was, it was the woman's private home, and she was inviting friends. It wasn't official, so she wasn't breaking any law. (I don't think!!!)

But the woman hosting it was so worried about legal action being taken against her, that she cancelled the group, and never had it again. She had 2-4 friends around for coffee now and again after a few months, but the big group never resurfaced. All because of this stupid cow who was threatening to take it further if her male partner couldn't come to this womans friendship group!

I did feel a bit responsible, but the host said, if anything, it was the fault of the other woman in Church, asking me if I was going to 'Elizabeth's' house for the ladies group on Thursday. I never mentioned it. She did. Also, the host could have said no to this woman. Said the group was full or something.

But yeah, tl;dr, this woman virtually inviting herself, ruined the group, by demanding her male partner comes to this female only group, and saying she'll have to have a word with someone - and take it further, as she wasn't happy with the sexism/exclusion.

I am so very angry on your behalf.

I'd be sticking a huge sign on the door saying...

PLEASE NOTE, PENISES ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THIS GROUP. VAGINAS ONLY.

I help run a ladies walking group and we have wondered what we would do in such a situation.

If I were involved, it would be one of the first things I'd mention. call it Business continuity and/or disaster recovery.

Any man behaving this way is by definition a creep.

im so sorry this man has targeted your group. He’s going to have to be told no.

Your point about women trying to infiltrate male only spaces made me remember this news story but I didn't realise it was from 2018. How depressing that we have been fighting this crap for so long and are going to have to continue doing something for the foreseeable.

There's no self ID in the UK so yes you can refuse the pervert.

LOVE THAT! 😆

They'd probably claim that their penis identifies itself as a vagina so they must be let in. And a dose of #BeKind.

No advice but I hope you can resolve it. You're right to check what's ok, most people wouldn't want to be targeted in any way

I think this is the key risk - if you're using a council venue and he complains to the council, they may insist you allow him access or lose the space, unfortunately. Might be worth considering alternative venues just in case

This is the type of situation that gets really tricky.

In some cities, being accused of 'transphobia' can have your name and address circulated on vicious hit lists that target individuals, groups, businesses. It can have people who are public figures or have any type of media presence or social media following 'cancelled' etc. So the women were brave to go and protest openly.

I know it's an old issue, been going on a long time but it's still grinding away.

They might want to remain open to new members, especially if it's a women's support group. Hard to do that if they've been forced underground.

Also we haven't actually seen his penis. We're 'assuming' it's there.

Could be one of the rare few that's had it lopped off but that would rather at odds with their failure to try and appear in anyway womanly so it seems exceptionally unlikely.

It's a hard task for one person (the group organiser) to confront but at the same time if a few us did, then it could be framed as outrageous bullying / harassment / intimidation. Of course it will be framed as that anyway.

There've been reports on Twitter of similar men turning up on FB breastfeeding groups.

Of course you can say no.

can a 40 yr old man attend child / grandchild infant school NO
can a 50,60 yr old man come to your group NO

women have the right to single sex groups
men can be excluded
public/private/council room or not .
Your group : you make the rules.

if ( and it’s an if) a man has a GRC he can STILL BE EXCLUDED but you need a reason (at present) like other posters have suggested
: we deal with menopausal issue - female DV - reflections on our periods .., anything that a man can’t experience and share like you women can .. but that any other 40-80 year old woman could .

NO is an answer and we women better step up and say so otherwise it will be pointless later …

I think the best bet is for the organiser to make it a membership group where you need to be nominated by another member to apply and/or write an application why you want to be a member. This is how the men only clubs in London do it. So you can exclude people that way for "reasons" and those reasons don't need to be specific to how they identify

Bloody hell, how can they claim it's not a fetish when they pull shit like this. Trying to force yourself on a rape survivors group FFS🙄😡