Female nurses say they were forced to share changing rooms with biological male

Female nurses are bringing legal motion against an NHS Trust after claiming they were made to share changing rooms with a biological male who identifies as a lady.

Supported by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), the five nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital say they were told they needed to “broaden their mindset” and be more “inclusive” after they complained. 

They have filed legal motion for alleged sexual harassment and sex discrimination against County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, which manages the hospital. 

Current Trust policies permit members of staff identifying as the other gender to access single-sex toilets, showers, and changing rooms which don’t have private cubicles.

The nurses – Bethany Hutchison, Lisa Lockey, Annice Grundy, Tracey Hooper and Joanne Bradbury – are publicly speaking out following the launch of their landmark legal case. 

They claim that the present arrangement is causing panic attacks amongst female members of staff, including vulnerable women who’ve experienced sexual abuse.

Twenty-six nurses wrote to HR bosses on the hospital but say they were told to get “educated” and “compromise”. They say they felt “threatened” and “intimidated” at HR meetings in regards to the issue, and fear losing their jobs for speaking out.

They also allege that they weren’t consulted or given any warning in regards to the policy before it got here into effect.

Hutchison, who’s a Christian, said that NHS transgender policies are “putting us in danger” but many nurses are “afraid of sticking their heads above the parapet”.  

“This mustn’t be something women even have to take into consideration. However, the acute transgender ideology that’s putting us in danger is so ingrained and has gone thus far that we and other women haven’t any alternative but to talk out,” she said.

The nurses are demanding a change in policy “not only at our hospital but across the NHS and wider society”.

“The meetings we’ve had on the hospital have been threatening and intimidating. To say we want educating when staff have multiple degrees was deeply insulting and demonstrates a failure of care towards female staff, a few of whom are vulnerable,” she said. 

“I and my colleagues mustn’t feel afraid at work. It is disgraceful that nurses are ending up in tears before they must go and supply emotional support to our patients.”

Lockey said that having to share the changing room with a biological male has made her “feel on edge”.

“We went into nursing because we care about people, but we’ve been made to query ourselves and made to feel like bigots once we aren’t any such thing,” she said. 

“There are a number of trans individuals who don’t pose a threat and we understand that, but with this policy there isn’t a approach to decipher who is nice and who’s bad. This is why we’re doing it because there isn’t a policy to guard us, not only in Darlington, but across the country.

“We are aware that transgender activists will probably hate us for what we’re doing, however it isn’t against transgender people, that is about protecting female space.”

Grundy added, “People say ‘you might be brave’ for speaking out, but why should it’s brave to talk out on these issues? Why should we even must?”

CLC chief executive Andrea Williams said that trans ideology was having “real and dangerous consequences”.

“Rishi Sunak says he knows what a lady is, Keir Starmer says he’s committed to protecting single-sex spaces. The reality on the bottom, nonetheless, is one in every of complete chaos. Policies have promoted gender ideology over biology creating widespread confusion that can’t be ignored any longer,” she said. 

“There ought to be no place in workplaces for transgender ideology that denies science and biological reality, and which is exploited in this fashion.

“The nurses on this hospital have spoken out with fear and trepidation. Between them they’ve many years of experience on hospital wards and so they are those that ought to be protected and comforted as they simply seek to do the job they love without fear of retribution for speaking up.”

A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust said: “The Trust would love to stress that at this stage the claims being made are allegations which must be fully investigated and reviewed. The Trust has initiated this through its internal processes and this work continues. However, because the allegations at the moment are also subject to lively legal motion, it could not be appropriate for the Trust to comment further at this stage.”