Hereditary titles are sexist - bit niche but...

[lcakethereforeIam]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/22/gender-equality-in-hereditary-titles/

https://archive.ph/3DBOL

This bit

the bizarre status quo might mean that my elder sister, Lady Willa Franks, could be eligible to inherit his title if she chose to change her gender.

Does anyone want to break the news to her that the drafters of the GRA thought of this and wrote a clause that specifically prohibits women from leapfrogging male heirs by getting a GRC that gives them the legal fiction of a male sex.

They all know what a woman is 🙄

it is bonkers that hereditary titles still only go to the male line. they have changed it for the royals, but if you are a minor duke or whatever, then only the younger brother (or 3rd cousin) get the title over an elder daughter. sexist nonsense.

It is bonkers that hereditary titles still exist, especially as it can still be route to parliament

Although surely holders of these titles can leave property to who they like?

"If males who transition to females are allowed to compete as women in the Olympics, then a female who transitions to male can surely inherit a castle"

I thought that was not the case, even GRCs did not effect the hereditary rules

I rather liked the bit that read “Some 91 hereditary peers remain in the House of Lords, having inherited their titles because they have penises. Sir Keir Starmer wants to remove them altogether…”

Seems everyone knows what a woman is when the alternative has a negative impact upon a man……

Also, the castle goes to whoever the will says - property inheritance is nothing to do with the title. Seems the writer did no research whatsoever.

They'd still be peers though.

And the drafters of the GRA had to think about it because it had come up before in the case of Michael Dillon, who was outed as a trans man as a result of discrepancies between Debrett's and Burke's peerage books in 1958.

'The editor of Debrett's told Time magazine that Dillon was unquestionably next in line for the baronetcy, saying: "I have always been of the opinion that a person has all rights and privileges of the sex that is, at a given moment, recognized."'

So they had good and specific reason to consider this eventuality.

They haven't actually changed it for titles for the Royals. Only the line of succession.

If the Charlotte had been William's eldest then if he died before his father she still wouldn't inherit his titles. The ones pertaining to being heir would return to the crown (Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall) and his Cambridge title would be inherited by Charlotte's younger brother as it was created to be inherited by a male heir.

Going forward I imagine they may be issued differently, but they are still issued with male heirs as the successors as standard. Edward's Duke of Edinburgh was issued different as it's not inheritable by anyone.

The explanatory notes in the GRA legislation regarding peerages -

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/7/notes/division/4/16

The Lords or the penises? 😂

Well exactly.

men never lose their inherent rights they were born with.
regardless of how ‘oppressed’ they will claim to be.

A man can put on a dress, and call himself Gertrude, or even change his sex marker on his passport, and he would STILL inherit a male title.

Absolute proof positive that they know exactly who the males are and who the females are, even if they act out a charade.

yes and no
plenty of properties are tied up as entailed properties which means that they go with the ‘next male’ inheritance path and can not be left wherever you wish… to break an entail is complex…
most big estates with entailed properties will also have wealth outside the entailed so the owner gets to leave some wealth as they wish and some is entailed…

I have often wondered why those that claim to be gender critical ignored the option if co opting the Lords into the argument.

Obviously to do this they would have to pretend to be TRAs and lobby for a change in the law. This would mobilise the Lords Lobby immediately and the full weight of the establishment would be directed to quash such nonsense.

Why do you think it's the one area where TRAs have remained suspiciously quiet ? Because they knew the reaction they'd draw.

That would've been a great tactic. I often wondered why more wasn't made of the inherited title thing - as in the law really knows what sex is in this instance - and it works to keep women as the loser.

Not sure I understand your post. We gender critical people have been commenting on this ridiculous law for years - it’s such a clear example of institutional misogyny combined with the total counterfactual illogic of the GRC and ‘sex changes’.

And where has it got you ?

You should have pointed the TRAs at it (as if they didn't know). Matter and anti-matter. They would have annihilated each other.

Why do you think TRAs left it well alone. The establishment is quite happy to let them froth about toilets. Just leave the gongs alone.

I have wondered how it would work with honours, obviously the gendered ones. I'm not aware that any tp has been put forward for a Dame or Knighthood. I suspect the establishment have given that a swerve and would just dole out one of the 'BEs. I know at least one TW took up his inherited title and his place in the Lords. I assume, if he uses it, it'll be a male title (Lord, Baronet) still.

Does anyone know if any of the commenters pointed out the errors in the article?

I doubt spending our energy and money on the anachronisms and inconsistencies of the Lords would have got us any further than where we are now, with clarity and sanity re-establishing themselves.
If there had been an active case of a trans person being unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged by this, maybe. 🤷‍♀️

That's not been the case in England since 1925 - you can now break an entail with a simple deed or will (it been possible to break them since 1833, but it used to be more complicated). And there are no entails in Scotland, although there are stricter rules han England's about who can/must inherit.

Trans Rights Activists have not made a fuss about primogeniture because, at heart, they are just Men's Rights Activists.

Matthew/Matilda Simon goes by 'Baroness'. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/should-a-trans-woman-inherit-a-peerage-over-their-older-sister/