While Britain\u2019s NHS remains on its knees, with A&E waiting times still unacceptably long and bed-blocked preventing sick patients from accessing wards, you\u2019d think that all hands would be on deck to help make patient passages through hospital even a little more comfortable. Not in the County Durham and Darlington hospital trust. The trust\u2019s LGBT network has instead been hard at work producing, er, a 36-page digital Pride Month calendar. Time well spent, eh?<\/p>\n
Inside, Pride Month 2025 contains graphics that tie each day of June to the celebration of a particular LGBT theme, showing flags representing a colourful variety of different genders and sexualities placed on different dates. Amid the vibrant images are flags for pansexual people \u2013 individuals attracted to \u2018all types\u2019 of people regardless of \u2018gender or sexual orientation\u2019 \u2013 and the polyamorous, which is defined in the document as a \u2018relationship style in which more than two people engage in intimate, consensual relationship\u2019. Other themes include drag \u2013 to be celebrated on 7 June \u2013 with details later in the booklet about how it \u2018evolved\u2019 throughout then 1900s. And the calendar \u2013 which was sent as a digital file to the trust\u2019s employees at the start of June \u2013 also points readers towards works by \u2018prevalent LGBTQ+ authors\u2019, including trans writer Juno Dawson. How very curious\u2026<\/p>\n
The calendar has sparked outrage, with some at the hospital dubbing it \u2018divisive\u2019, not least because it comes as eight Darlington nurses \u2013 who were forced to form their own union to defend the rights of women \u2013 sued the trust and won their landmark battle for a female-only changing room at work. And it has also ruffled feathers after directing staff towards Mermaids, a trans youth charity that was embroiled in scandal after it emerged it had agreed to send chest binders \u2013 which pose serious health risks \u2013 to 14-year-olds without parental consent, while the Charity Commission found that Mermaids\u2019 guidance on puberty blocker safety was inaccurate. <\/p>\n
For its part, a spokesperson for the trust insisted:<\/p>\n
\nThe calendar was developed and shared internally, during June which is nationally recognised as Pride Month, as part of the work led by our LGBTQ+ staff network, using time allocated through our staff network group framework\u2026 The calendar was intended to be a supportive, optional resource for staff. It was shared in a gentle and non-directive way, with no call to action. As an organisation, we are committed to creating a workplace where all colleagues feel safe, supported and respected.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Mr S wonders quite what the Darlington eight have to say about that\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Britain\u2019s NHS remains on its knees, with A&E waiting times still unacceptably long and bed-blocked preventing sick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-211197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114740040008068238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}