Mick Hartley

Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph – “Despite the law supporting female-only spaces, biological men who have been rightfully excluded will do all that they can to destroy them”.

We all know the scenario where two small children are playing and one snatches a toy off the other and they start fighting. An adult comes along, takes the toy away and says: “If you can’t learn to share, neither of you can play with the truck.” One of the children feels that they have been unfairly treated. Neither child is happy. This is where we are on the issue of single-sex spaces for women.

The law that was clarified by the Supreme Court last April said clearly that sex in legal terms under the Equality Act meant biological sex. In the debate that has raged around it, there has been an insane focus on toilets, but the ruling is about more than that. Women are entitled to single-sex spaces – and not only should our big institutions ensure that this is facilitated, but our smaller social organisations should do so too. This includes organisations actually set up for women, such as the Girl Guides, the Women’s Institute, the Ladies Pond at Hampstead Heath, a female boxing club… all should be what they say on the tin. For women only.

This should be straightforward. Somehow, though, chaos has ensued. This is partly because the Women and Equalities minister, Bridget Phillipson, has refused to lay out guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and partly because organisations, often under the sway of a minority of trans activists, say that unless biological men (trans women) are allowed into women’s spaces, they will basically destroy them.

If someone says no to tantruming men, if women won’t hand over the toys, then no one can have the toys.

There is, unfortunately, considerable assistance from the “be kind” women – in Girlguiding or the Women’s Institute, for instance.

Janet Murray’s report in this paper detailed the clashes in the Girlguiding movement because some of its members do not accept the decision made last December to restrict membership to biological girls. This was in line with the Equality Act and it means boys who identify as girls will no longer be able to become Brownies or Guides. In defiance, a militant group, Guiders Against Trans Exclusion (Gate), is handing out badges to groups as young as Rainbows (children aged between five and seven) to show support for trans allies.

Again we must ask: who is this for? Trans people are a tiny percentage of the population (in the 2021 census, it’s 0.5 per cent, and even that figure has been criticised for being an overestimation). Now that puberty blockers have been banned, these Gate-sympathising boys are simply self-IDing as girls – and parents are going along with social transitioning.

A safeguarding issue, though, comes into play for the Guides when it comes to shared rooms on group trips. Why is the movement tearing itself apart over this?

The Women’s Institute is going through similar skirmishes that I find hilarious. If trans women are not admitted to its meetings, it will close down some of its branches. Nora Salmon, of a group in Hackney, said that ruling men out had created “a carnage of concern and upset”. I love this. The words carnage and Women’s Institute in the same sentence – it’s the first time I have ever wanted to join!

More legal wrangles are going on concerning the Ladies Pond in Hampstead. There are three ponds: one men’s, one mixed and one for women – and guess what? Yes, biological men want access to the Ladies Pond so that all three are for men. Women, share your toys or have none.…

What are we now saying to girls? You are never allowed anything of your own? You have no right to complain? You have no right to privacy? There is no place you can go where men are not allowed? If you were sensitive and learnt to share you would let men access all areas?

No. This is not what the law says but, perhaps more importantly, this is not how many women feel.

Inclusion now appears to mean both the exclusion of women’s concerns and the facts of male violence.

Until those facts change, I won’t consider sharing my toys.