#BrandNewsCorpUKTheTimesJonathanAmes & #BrandNewsCorpUKTheTimesCatherineBaksi "Feminists locked in trans row to sue student union Jonathan Ames Legal Editor Catherine Baksi A feminist student group at Bristol University is set to launch a legal challenge claiming discrimination after the student union sanctioned them for running women-only meetings. The group, Women Talk Back, has launched a crowdfunding campaign in an attempt to sue the union after the group denied a transgender woman entry to a women-only event. Union officials have demanded that the group's chairwoman, Raquel Rosario Sánchez, resign and have barred her from joining the committee of any other affiliated group at the university for two years. They have banned the group from conducting women-only events and have insisted that all members of Women Talk Back undergo 'diversity and inclusivity training' that will focus on the importance of allowing men into previously women-only events. As of yesterday the group had... come affiliated to the student union three years ago and 'consulted discrimination lawyers to help us explain why we explicitly wished to implement the single-sex exceptions under the Equality Act 2010'. Provisions in the legislation allow for groups to be single-sex provided that doing so is regarded as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. The group says it also runs events that are open to people of any gender. Sánchez, a PhD student originally from the Dominican Republic, claimed last year that officials at the university had failed to protect her from bullying and harassment by other students over her feminist views. The group said: 'Our case could be the among the first brought by women who were directly pre-vented from or sanctioned for using the single-sex exemptions under the Equality Act 2010.' It argued that 'the rights everyone has to single-sex spaces mean nothing if public bodies and institutions such as the Bristol" #IdentityLGBTQIATrans #EDUUKUniversityOfBristolFeministSocietyWomenTalkBack