On June 22, the Daily Mail reported that nurses in the United Kingdom were informed by their bosses that they needed to get with the transgender program and accept men in their changerooms – fast. The headline: “‘You need to be re-educated’: That’s how a group of NHS nurses say hospital chiefs reacted when they complained that a transgender colleague – who shared their women’s changing room – stared as they got undressed.”
As one woman put it on X (formerly Twitter): “We went from #MeToo to ‘reeducate yourself to like men staring at you as you get undressed at work’ in 5 years, and I doubt it’s an accident.”
The nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital—who were long-serving employees—complained because a 26-year-old transgender-identifying man was acting “intimidating” in the women’s changing room. He stared at their breasts while they got undressed and hung around “longer than necessary” in the changeroom. The man—who calls himself “Rose”—has not undergone any “sex change” surgeries and told colleagues that he was trying to get his girlfriend pregnant. The nurses described him as “a sexually active biological male.”
When the nurses brought forward their complaints, however, they were dismissed; the Mail reports that hospital bosses “allegedly told the nurses they needed to get ‘educated’ and broaden their minds.” A human resources manager informed them that they needed to be “more inclusive.” As a result, eight of the 26 nurses that signed the original complaint letter are “launching an unprecedented employment tribunal against the NHS Trust that employs them, claiming harassment, indirect discrimination, victimisation, and human rights violations.”
Four of the eight spoke to the Mail about their experiences, which have been ongoing since August 2023.
“It’s disgraceful that nurses are ending up in tears prior to their shifts. We are there to be an emotional support for patients who are about to undergo surgery, and it’s very difficult to do that if you’re in a state of distress from having to change in front of a male,” said 34-year-old surgery nurse Bethany Hutchinson. “I think women need to stop being fearful about this and use their voice. We have fought for so long to get women’s rights but it’s just gone backwards, and I’m not prepared to see that.”
Being told that they needed to be reeducated was particularly offensive to Hutchinson. “It is so offensive to us because we are all educated – we need a degree in order to do this job and some of us have multiple degrees. We’ve got very intelligent people on our ward so it was disgusting for them to say something like that to us.”
Another nurse, Lisa Lockey, told the press: “We’ve all been really uneasy about [coming forward]. We know there’s a lot of trans activists who will probably hate us for what we’re doing. But it’s not against trans people [sic]. This is about protecting a female’s space. It’s not to hurt anybody, we want a safe policy.” The nurses have to change their clothes before and after shifts as an infection control measure, and many female staff have taken to using the cubicles to avoid changing in front of the man identifying as “Rose.”
Forty-five-year-old nurse Tracy Hooper noted that the man’s presence in the changeroom “makes me feel on edge,” explaining: “You scan the changing room before you start to undress. It’s just very uncomfortable. I don’t want to get changed in front of a biological man, and I don’t want to see him getting changed either. We’re not asking for him to go in the male changing room either, he should be provided for.”
One nurse, who was sexually abused as a little girl, has PTSD and struggles to be alone around men. The man’s presence in the changeroom brought her close to tears. “I was rummaging in my bag trying to find my lanyard and keys for the locker when a man’s voice behind me said, ‘Are you not getting changed yet?’” she said. “He stood there, two metres from me, with a scrub top on and with tight black boxer shorts with wholes in them and asked [again] whether I was getting changed yet… I felt glued to me seat, I could not move. My hands started to sweat. I was petrified and felt sick and began hyperventilating.”
Right now, the Darlington Memorial Hospital permits people to choose whichever facilities they believe match their “gender” – and it is driving women from their own facilities. A fourth nurse, Annice Grundy, noted: “I won’t get changed in that changing room anymore—I’ve found somewhere else to change, which I don’t feel I should have to do.” Another reported: “We don’t feel safe because we strip down to our underwear and Rose doesn’t just stay by his locker. He walks around in his boxer shorts.”
As the Mail reported: “Today the nurses also say they are worried about the impact on foreign-born hospital staff with different religious backgrounds, who had taken to wearing leggings and tops underneath their uniforms to avoid their bodies being seen, despite the discomfort this causes during work.” This, of course, is not only true for “foreign-born hospital staff,” but also for Christian nurses – and anyone else who prizes modesty.
The nurses’ case is being backed by the Christian Legal Centre. “This case demonstrates as clear as day that this is an issue of biology not ideology,” said Andrea Williams, chief executive of the CLC. “Once we lose a sense of physical reality all kinds of real and dangerous consequences emerge. Legislating to protect and promote ‘gender identity’ places women at risk, which is so strikingly evidenced in this case. There should be no place in workplaces for transgender ideology that denies science and biological reality, and which is exploited in this way.”
“The nurses in this hospital have spoken out with fear and trepidation,” Williams continued. “Between them they have decades of experience on hospital wards, and they are the ones that should be protected and comforted as they simply seek to do the job they love without fear of retribution for speaking up. We stand with this dedicated group of professionals and will pursue this matter until common sense prevails and justice is done.”
The hospital says that the allegations will be fully investigated and reviewed. According to the Mail, “Rose” declined to comment.
