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?

OP could the organiser 'cancel' ir for a few weeks with maybe a bad dose of flu - nothing stopping you all swaping numbers and meeting up in a cafe on the same day.

Hopefully he will get bored.

I feel your pain.

I interviewed a trans woman recently - didnt hire because there was a candidate with better experience, the barrage of nasty letters and phonecalls aimed at ne afterwards was awful.

We did.

We actually have a trans woman in our group. No issues. She lives as a female in all ways.

A man tried to say he was a woman, but wasn't living as a woman other than wearing women's clothes sometimes.

We declined his entry and blocked him. There's a difference.

Maybe there should be more of a barrier to entry then, the group organiser needs to step up and decide how to handle this. Ultimately you said they are creepy, depending on what is being said/done that could be reason enough to ask them not to return.

A man tried to crash a menopause support group? Or have I misunderstood?

This is what I would do.
Let him come, and bring along some male friends/partners and say the group is opening up to get other viewpoints or something. Or if your male friends are willing they can maintain they are exploring their gender identities. This would be ideal and no one can question that. The creep will lose interests as soon as he realises he is not the only bloke there.

Your mistake is thinking he's reasonable. Definitely a power play

And scratch your pretend balls and then ask this Laydee to get in the kitchen and brew up.

The worst is when they insist they should be able to access rape victims support groups that are female only for obvious reasons. It's so anger inducing. This shit needs to stop, it's beyond a joke now

If (the Council threatening your place) happens to you GO BACK AND ASK THE COMMITTEE why they are denying you your right to a single sex group

Don't even think about it, @Justwant2sit. I've had to attend more council "consultations" than I care to remember, and can assure you there's unlikely to be a word of sense from beginning to end

IME they're absolute hives of "rightthink", infested with whatever the most fashionable diktat happens to be - though without any real understanding of the issues involved - and the only real solution is to keep them well away wherever possible

Actually that just plays to his pervyness. Maybe he could do a little intro about the best way to shave off a beard. And maybe the offside rule…

We actually have a trans woman in our group. No issues. She lives as a female in all ways.
A man tried to say he was a woman, but wasn't living as a woman other than wearing women's clothes sometimes.

How does someone live as a woman?

This is the sort of mind boggling nonsense you’ll be subjected to op.

No I think you had it right the first time. I can't think how anyone of either gender can "identify" with having gone through the menopause unless they have, I certainly can't as it hasn't happened to me yet.

Ok, we are not a menopause group. We are a womans walking group. We let this person join as we felt there was no threat.

Had legally changed name, presenting only as a woman.

There was no threat to our members.

Out of interest how does one “live as a female”?

I want to make sure I’m doing it right.

How do women present then? Is there a way that all women present and men don’t? If I’ve got trousers and short hair am I presenting as a man? Would I not be allowed in?

@RareMaker what is the difference between the two people you talk about?

What was the person 'living as a woman' doing?

Just to endorse the point that single sex groups are 'allowed': there are still men only members clubs in London.

Can you all just meet up for coffee somewhere else for the next couple of meetings? Once he’s turned up to an empty room a couple of times he’ll give probably up.

Playing devils advocate... Who's the 'we' making that decision? Do all the members of the walking group know and agree? Is there potentially a situation where one of your members might offer a carshare to this person without having met them or meet 1:1 to walk with this person not realising they are meeting a male person?

As there are so few of you in the group, could you close the group and switch to meeting as friends somewhere else? Maybe meet up in someone's house. Not that you should have to though.

They're a bloody menace , women's rights laws really need to catch up.

I wonder if you just meet up, and no one speaks.
(Because I’m guessing you feel UN-safe. )
“ well ladies, I guess we’re not feeling it today” …Then meeting adjourned

and then you go to Costa without she/her. We women know how to ice another one out of the group.

Personally, I would just not engage with any women who won’t shave her beard for the ladies group.

What do you mean by 'there was no threat to our members', @RareMaker?

This isn't about 'threats'. It's about people (women in this case) exercising their right to freedom of association. The presence of a man would change the dynamic and one such as this, who has the effrontery to try to insert himself where he's not wanted, will shift the dynamic of a group massively. Maybe the group wants to chat about stuff that they don't want to talk about around men.

Thanks for that. It made me laugh out loud. 😂

I think you can actually bar him OP, but it's sad that you would even need to check the law over this. I was advised here that it's something to do with the number of people in your group or if it's registered as an official society or not.

@AstonUniversityPotholeDepartment Fucking awful. The police being used as a weapon against women.

Although you could try @MarieDeGournay 's approach as step 1 if you like, personally, I don't think you should get into any kind of justifying with him other than, this is a women's group (females) and you're man (male). Be very careful as what you say could be used against you.

Also, such a person is very, very likely to ignore a polite request, and may see it as a weakness.

Agreed. It's sick.