Exclusive: CEO says decision taken with ‘utmost regret and sadness’ after supreme court ruling on definition of a woman

The Women’s Institute will no longer accept transgender women as members from April following the UK supreme court ruling on the legal definition of a woman, the Guardian can reveal.

  • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
    14·
    2 days ago

    The Women’s Institute will no longer accept transgender women as members from April following the UK supreme court ruling on the legal definition of a woman, the Guardian can reveal.

    “Incredibly sadly, we will have to restrict our membership on the basis of biological sex from April next year,” Green said. “But the message we really want to get across is that it remains our firm belief that transgender women are women, and that doesn’t change.”

          • Saapas@piefed.zipEnglish
            4·
            2 days ago

            I don’t think they’re using it as a dogwhistle, from searching it just seems a fairly commonly used term

            • Sunshine (she/her)@piefed.caEnglish
              6·
              2 days ago

              10 day account attempting to downplay transphobia…

              In recent years, anti-LGBTQ politicians and media figures have increasingly employed the phrases “biological male” and “biological female” as derogatory ways of referring to transgender women and transgender men respectively. Extensive research confirms that sex and gender are complex and cannot be reduced to simplistic “biological” categories. Using these phrases to target trans people is not a matter of accuracy but of animus — language wielded to stigmatize and deny transgender and nonbinary people’s right to live openly and safely. These phrases are not neutral descriptors; they are rhetorical devices used to deny the validity of transgender identities. Terms such as “biological male” or “biological boy” are deployed to deliberately misgender transgender women and girls while collapsing the important distinction between gender identity and sex assigned at birth. As journalist Erin Reed notes, since the early 2010s, “biological” framings have been deliberately mobilized as part of anti-trans political agendas: “Anti-trans legislators are on the record stating the broader goal is the end of transgender people altogether. If they can convince the public to place an asterisk next to the gender identity of transgender athletes, it becomes much easier to extend that asterisk to bathrooms, youth rights, literature, and beyond.”

              What began as a deliberate strategic framing in legislative debates and media coverage quickly spread online, appearing in posts, memes, and coordinated harassment campaigns. On social media, the terms “biological male/female” or “biological pronouns” are frequently used to target individual trans people with harassment, to spread disinformation about transgender athletes, or promote false narratives that trans women are threats in women’s spaces. The repetition of these phrases in comment sections, hashtags, and viral content normalizes misgendering, escalates pile-ons, and creates hostile environments that make platforms unsafe for trans users.

              • Saapas@piefed.zipEnglish
                7·
                2 days ago

                I’m just saying it’s a commonly used term. Wikipedia uses it 12 times and in a very neutral way too from what I can tell.

                Searching for the word brings up all kinds of articles that aren’t transphobic from what I can tell

                I don’t doubt some use terms “biological woman” or something in a transphobic and hostile way, but from searching for it, “biological sex” is commonly used (also) as a neutral term.

            • Sunshine (she/her)@piefed.caEnglish
              9·
              2 days ago

              Do not make incorrect assumptions. I’m talking about when trans individuals are referred to in general and no intersex people do not fall neatly within 2 boxes.

              Stop defending Nazis. Get your head out of your ass.

              The terms “biological male” and “biological female” have no universal medical definition. Some may use it interchangeably with phrases like “sex assigned at birth,” but ultimately, it reinforces the patently false notion that there are two binary and immutable sexes, and that there are always clear cut distinctions between them. In other words, this verbiage is not only demeaning to trans people; reporters never seem to describe cisgender people as “identifying” as male or female. Even more than that, this language is deeply unscientific.

              “Extensive research confirms that sex and gender are complex and cannot be reduced to simplistic “biological” categories. Using these phrases [’biological male’ and ‘biological female’] to target trans people is not a matter of accuracy but of animus — language wielded to stigmatize and deny transgender and nonbinary people’s right to live openly and safely,” GLAAD’s Guide to Anti-LGBTQ Online Hate and Disinformation explains.

              https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/bbc-now-calling-trans-women-biological