NHS nurses sue over transgender policy that ‘puts them at risk’

17 comments

1. I can’t open the full article, but if I understand correctly this is a story about WOMEN not wanting to share a changing room with MEN, and the fact they have to sue their employer for this basic right is absolutely unhinged.

2. this is a serious problem if women don’t feel comfortable using women’s only changing rooms. I can sympathise with them to an extent, I can understand why a woman would feel unsafe sharing a changing room with a big manly looking trans woman with her penis out. I’m not sure what the solution should be either tbh

3. These are the ones who were previously told when expressing discomfort that they needed to broaden their mindset, right?

4. ‘Transgender policies at hospitals are putting women “at risk”, four NHS nurses have claimed, after blowing the whistle on the “intimidating” behaviour of a trans colleague.

   Lawyers for Bethany Hutchison, Lisa Lockey, Annice Grundy, Tracey Hooper and Joanne Bradbury, who work at the Darlington Memorial Hospital, said they were launching legal action and speaking publicly after managers “continued to brush aside their concerns”.

   The four have claimed that female nurses at the hospital — part of the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust — have experienced panic attacks after being required to change into work clothes in front of a sexually active biological male.

   The male operating department practitioner, who the nurses have alleged has said openly that he does not take female hormones and is trying to get his girlfriend pregnant, identifies as a woman and uses the name Rose.

   Speaking for the group, Hutchison said that they wanted “women to be aware that there are transgender policies, particularly in the NHS, that are putting us at risk”.

   She said that “the extreme transgender ideology” was “ingrained” among health service managers and that it had “gone so far that we and other women have no choice but to speak out”.

   Hutchison claimed that nurses at her hospital were “terrified of sticking their heads above the parapet”, adding: “This cannot be right and we want a change in policy, not only at our hospital, but across the NHS and wider society.”

   The nurse also accused managers at her trust of being “threatening and intimidating” towards staff who had raised concerns about the hospital’s transgender policy. 

   The nurses claimed that hospital bosses told them they needed “educating” to be more “inclusive” and to “broaden” their minds, according to The Mail on Sunday.

   Referring specifically to Rose, Hutchi­son said that there had been times when the two of them had been alone in the changing rooms and that her ­colleague “looks very masculine, and it is a shock”.

   Hutchison said that she and her colleagues “should not feel afraid at work”, adding: “It is disgraceful that nurses are ending up in tears before they have to go and provide emotional support to our patients. It is very difficult to do that if you are already in a state of distress because you are having to get changed in front of a male.”

   The nurses alleged that the trust’s policies permitted any member of staff to “identify” in the opposite gender and to access single-sex changing rooms, lavatories and showers.

   They said that the hospital changing room did not have cubicles but instead had staff lockers, with a large open space where nurses changed before and after work. 

   The nurses said that Rose often spent “a long time walking around the female dressing room”, often wearing only tight boxers.

   One nurse said that the first time she had encountered Rose in the changing room, her colleague was semi-naked and with their genitalia visible.

   The nurses said that 26 colleagues wrote to the trust to raise concerns, but that human resources managers said that they supported Rose and the nurses needed to get “educated” and “compromise”. 

   A spokesman for the trust told [The Mail on Sunday](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13557965/You-need-reeducated-NHS-nurses-hospital-chiefs-reacted-complained-transgender-colleague-shared-womens-changing-room-stared-got-undressed.html) that it was fully investigating the nurses’ claims. “However, as the allegations are now also subject to active legal action, it would not be ­appropriate for the trust to comment further at this stage,” he added.’

5. Is it one employee or all trans people who are the issue here though? One person abusing the policy for their own sexual thrill (who, let’s be honest, is unlikely to be truly trans to begin with) is not the same as changing with trans people, who are probably more conscious of changing in front of biological women to begin with.

6. Genuinely bizzare that when this was first reported as a problem, the management decided to browbeat the nurses rather than investigate what was going on.

   Now it’s become a court case and generates huge negative publicity for the trust and indirectly trans people who want to get charged at work without thrusting thier bits at other people.

7. can we deliniate between “puts them at risk” and “makes them uncomfortable”. the second one is still defensable in my view, but it seems obviously false to say these people are in danger because of trans owmen, anymore than they would be from lesbians, or even just cis men wanting to enter these space, there isn’t some magic forcfield at the door of the changing room that protects you from danger.

   personally as a man i don’t much like group changing rooms in general and will use the toilet stalls instead if i can. it seems to me like a group changing room problem rather than a trans problem, and i know this because i’ve used unisex changing rooms with individual stalls in the Manchester Aquatics Centre before and felt much more comfortable with the situation. the upstairs gym had gender sgeregtaed group changing rooms and i would avoid them by either turning up already changed or using the swimming pool changing facilities instead.

   comfort can be a defensible position for why you might not want something, but there are working models out there that we should be able to learn from that could guide as as to where the line is from someone with a legitimate concern thaat can be fixed, and someone who will never be happy and we can dismiss.

8. Maybe Rose is throwing her weight about and being a bit of an arse? P’raps this is a Rose problem rather than a transphobia problem.

   Lots of people act like arseholes in changing rooms. They should be pulled up on it, trans or not.

9. So from looking at this article Rose is a twat who wears inappropriate undergarments to work which she then exposes her colleague to

   This ain’t a trans problem, this is a Rose problem, it would be just as problematic if it was a cis woman in a G-string and pastes

10. The ultimate solution to all of these issues, be it changing rooms, or bathrooms, is to just have separate private cubicles and anyone can go into the main room regardless of sex or gender.

    Granted bathrooms might be more expensive due to potentially changing plumbing systems to add more cubicles, but it really should not be that expensive to put up some basic wood cubicles for people to change in.

    We should be moving towards this model anyway, it just seems so dumb to still separate men and women bathrooms.

11. At what point is a ‘sexually active biological man’ who is trying for a baby with his girlfriend and ‘not on any hormone therapy’ is either genuinely transgender (and unlikely to be a risk) or a predator for wanting to be in women’s changing rooms to exert a bit of power?

    Edit: edited to include quotes to show this is from the article

12. Feck sake. This is a Rose problem, not a trans people problem.

13. Why do trans issues seems to always revolve around trans women? Trans men seem to just get on with their lives. Genuine question.

14. >They said that the hospital changing room did not have cubicles but instead had staff lockers, with a large open space where nurses changed before and after work.

    >The nurses said that Rose often spent “a long time walking around the female dressing room”, often wearing only tight boxers.

    >The male operating department practitioner, who the nurses have alleged has said openly that he does not take female hormones and is trying to get his girlfriend pregnant, identifies as a woman and uses the name Rose.

    So you have someone who identifies as trans, not taking hormones, who’s sexually attracted to women and spending a lot of time hanging out in the womens changing room while in their underwear.

    I can understand why some of the nurses are a bit uncomfortable with the situation.

15. Going after all trans people for the actions of one weirdo is just madness. The clear issue is with exposing your genitals to other people. You think us men would want to see anything like that?

16. Simple fix. Costs money though, but individual changing rooms. Women can be predators too, so can men towards men. Individual changing cubicles gives everyone privacy no matter identity. I don’t want to change in front of anyone tbh.

17. Honestly, I’m a little skeptical given that the story originates from a batshit fundamentalist Christian group who actively opposes the entire concept of gay people existing.

    It also sounds like the solution in this case is simple, since the problem is not *that trans people can use the changing room* and more that *a trans person is behaving badly in the changing room*. There’s of course the broader discussion about individual changing facilities, but I’m not sure if that’s applicable to this story.