Concern about Plaid Cymru and women’s single-sex spaces in Wales

[GreenEyedFeminist]

Plaid Cymru is leading in the polls and could team up with The Greens. This will be a disaster for women in Wales. Plaid have been instrumental in pushing for policies that dismantle women’s rights to single-sex spaces and sports. The Plaid Manifesto is very vague on what it will actually do for women (like implementing the Supreme Court Ruling - Welsh politicians are very fond of the phrase Waiting for Guidance) but very specific on the subject of trans rights… full implementation of the Wales LGBTQ+ Action Plan is promised - that means males self-identifying into women’s spaces and sports. On the rare occasions when Rhun ap Iorwerth is questioned he says it’s ’a fringe issue’ 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’m really worried atm.

Im in Wales, my constituency is a two horse race between Reform and Plaid.
I really dont know who to vote for. Not voting is not an option. The obvious tactical vote to keep reform out is to vote plaid. Ive met Rhys ap Iorwerth. He's slippery and im not a fan.

I feel your pain.

@HagCymraeg can you recommend a good place to find current polling results. I suspect I might be in the position of deciding to keep reform out but not keen at all on Plaid for their sneaky approach to single sex spaces.

Totally agree.
And have you seen Plaid's 'Trans Equality and Inclusion' policy on their website?
"Uphold trans people's right to continue to access services and facilities in accordance with their gender identity."
https://www.partyof.wales/trans_equality
We're almost certainly going to end up with Plaid as the largest party, without an outright majority but only needing the Greens for a majority vote. The Greens are boasting in their campaign literature about being the ones in control and pushing Plaid to "go further".
Labour and the Lib Dems have already said they will never vote with any non 'progressive' party on any issue - no consideration of what's right or wrong for Wales, just a blanket veto. For some reason they seem to think this is a principled stance.
Have a look at Wales Women's Rights Network on X, they've been surveying all the candidates and have loads of useful info (that's where I found out all the above) - WRNWales. They're on FB now as well.

For all those voting to "keep Reform out" the new electoral system doesn't really work like this.
You're electing six MSs using the d'Hondt system, not one as in the old system, so tactical voting that applies in FPTP systems is irrelevant.

People need to look at the manifestos and understand what policies they will be voting for. It's hard to shake the PR each group has (warm cuddly Greens / patriotic Wales loving Plaid / far right evil Reform / traitorous Tories) but all these parties have moved on in the last couple of years.

We have to look at what each party is promising and is likely to be able to deliver. It's unlikely that Plaid or the Greens will suddenly remember that women have rights AFTER they have their hands on the levers of power.

I've been looking at this one - not sure if any good/accurate
Senedd Election Calculator 2026 | Welsh Parliament Seat Projections | PollCheck

I understand that, I mean by giving Plaid enough votes so they are either the majority or a strong enough opposition for Reform. My hope is if there is some kind of Alliance they will go with Labour rather than the Greens, but none of it is good news for women unfortunately.
I am naturally centre left, but politically homeless due to my beliefs on Women's rights

I love your term "politically homeless". This absolutely sums up how I feel. I'm also left leaning politically and feel exactly the same in Scotland because of my views on women's rights. I'm battling with the realisation that there is actually no party I can in conscience vote for next week.

I share your anxiety OP. Plaid and the Greens are pro self-ID and irritatingly righteous about their 'inclusive and compassionate' stance. The Welsh Gender Clinic is run on the basis of ideology rather than medical evidence. Women's rights are considered to be a dog-whistle and, although Labour have slightly distanced themselves from the TWAW mantra, many in the party remain smug devotees. I can't vote Reform for obvious reasons. The Conservatives are not in contention. It's bloody desperate!

Agree with all the above. I too feel politically homeless, naturally slightly to the left of centre but feel they are all ignoring women’s concerns.

What an insult from Plaid to describe women’s heartfelt concerns as a fringe issue. Absolutely awful.

Please vote tactically. The SNP, probably in alliance with the Greens, will dominate again. If you're not happy with that, vote for someone who has a chance of getting in and will at least speak out in favour of women's rights. You don't have to agree with everything their party believes in - they won't be running the country.

So Plaid want all mixed sex toilets? Presumably they’ve seen that experiment went wrong with children in Welsh schools?

Are they going to tell businesses to spend thousands and create new universal rooms instead of toilet cubicles? Or are they going to raise taxes to pay for this? Or will everyone, especially women, avoid the cubicles when they have to null and void UK health and safety legislation and building regs and just allow it to be a free for all? If they make it a free for all, many will change the design to either rooms or make the partitions and doors full height. Smelly, less cleanable, less easily monitored (except with hidden cameras) toilets that are more prone to misuse will follow.

Good news though for plumbers, partition makers, toilet shops, electricians - you’ll be heading to Wales if they win…

Edit: I do not know if they do, but the above are the options if they do.

If Plaid get in it will be the end of any hope for restoring women's rights in Wales we will no longer be part of Terf Island, we'll be part of the Global Left Blob.

If you can't bring yourself to vote 'for' then think of it as just voting against. 🤯

Politically homeless sums it up! But I can’t not vote. Too many women fought too hard for me not to use my vote. I just can’t believe Rhun ap Iorwerth stated that this was a ‘fringe issue’ on national tv… look at him squirm when Ed Balls held him to account. https://x.com/wrnwales/status/2044172454935892043?s=61&t=HeTVV02FVbA_mwnXH0ymWg

DH and I have postal votes and have already voted for our local independent candidate. I don't think he has a chance of winning, but he was a decent member of Senedd in the past and represented us well, both before and after he left his party. I couldn't not vote, but this way I didn't have to give my vote to any of the main parties in Wales, none of whom I trust on women's rights.

I'm politically to the left and less authoritarian than Jeremy Corbyn, but I've just posted my vote for Reform. We are living in Interesting Times.

There's a women who's standing as Independent in my area, any other year I'd vote for her but I'm voting Reform this year in the hopes of keeping PC from getting a dangerous majority.

Interesting times indeed. 😭

Reform want women back in the 1950s https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/reform-senedd-candidate-says-giving-33814409

They have about as much chance of that as a man has of becoming a women, that ship sailed in the 1960's.

I'm voting for them in an attempt to keep PC from getting a dangerous majority.

Another reason to stop them from getting a dangerous majority

“This is exactly the kind of politics people are fed up with big promises, no plan. The independent experts are clear: Plaid’s numbers simply don’t add up.”

Llyr Powell Criticises Plaid Cymru’s “Fantasy Economics” | Welsh Food Bites

I have voted PC in every election I’ve been eligible to vote in.
This time it will be Reform purely based on PCs stance on women’s rights.
I don’t agree with all of reform’s policies but I agree with more of what they say than PC

The whole entirety of Plaid are slippery. I have never voted for them and never will. I, too, am politically homeless at the moment, and unsure if I will even vote. If I do, well, I am now a single issue voter: adult human females' rights. Whoever stands firm for those would get my vote, but I don't believe a single thing any politician says. They will say anything to get elected.

If we don't have a firm commitment to biological truth, then we cannot accurately define any of the problems we might want to fix in society- not women's employment rights and pay equity or childcare (all of which go a long way towards bringing women into the workforce and improving our economic stability), not women's healthcare (which will save the NHS millions as women age and live longer, ditto social care), not disabled women's rights to same-sex intimate care, not retaining female teachers in a time of rampant misogyny... on and on and on.

We have our female rights enshrined in law, which were confirmed last year. If the current or next UK government wants to start trying to dismantle the Equality Act 2010, then that will be a fight we will have to take on.

Until then, my strategy will be to be ready to take every single breach of my same-sex rights to court. Yes, it might be expensive, but we have the law on our side! (don't forget JKR's fund, as well). All they have is feelings, political clap-trap, and the hope that they can do whatever they want and no one will notice. They cannot win everything. And every win for a woman is a brick chipped away from the wall.

Legal proceedings are the only thing that works right now. Don't wait for your politicians to do the right thing. They will only ever do what is expedient.

I know this sounds idealistic, but it's clear to me now that we will have to sue. Every. single. time.

I think it's a question of which party will have the most seats. A poll yesterday predicted it will be Reform.

No party is forecast to have a majority. So it's either a minority government or coalitions. Reform + tories won't get enough seats, but then neither would Plaid + greens.