6 days ago
The NHS must accept the reality of sex
The Supreme Court's ruling on the definition of sex in the Equality Act ought to have been the final word in a particularly ugly chapter of public discourse. Four months on from that landmark verdict, however, not enough has changed for the women who have suffered most from the capture of the public sector by gender extremism. It is time for ministers, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), to lay down the law that too many public bodies are still ignoring.
Just look to Fife, whose NHS trust is still spending exorbitant sums of public money fighting an employment tribunal against a nurse, Sandie Peggie, who refused to share a female changing room with a transgender doctor. Ms Peggie, a working-class woman whose NHS career was curtailed after 30 years for standing up for the existence of biological sex, has been dragged through the mud for daring to object to a male-bodied colleague watching her deal with a menstrual flood.
It was always absurd and offensive that Ms Peggie should be disciplined for expecting single-sex changing facilities. Now the law has been clarified, there should be no reason for the NHS to persist in wasting public money on tribunals brought by working women subjected to similar indignities. In Darlington, a group of nurses who similarly objected to a transgender colleague changing in their single-sex space will fight a full tribunal from October; others, including Jennifer Melle, who was racially abused by a trans-identifying male paedophile she called 'mister', have been suspended.
• Trans doctor Beth Upton lamented lack of guidelines on changing rooms
Enough is enough. The public sector in general and the health service in particular cannot be allowed to treat the law as optional. It is time for ministers to assert their authority. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has been admirably assertive in his dealings with the trans lobby in banning the prescription of puberty blockers to children. Now he must show the same initiative in forcing hospitals, NHS leaders and the NHS Confederation to abide by their legal obligations to female staff and patients. Mr Streeting must also ensure that the Scottish government duly falls into line.
It now falls to the EHRC to state those obligations beyond reasonable doubt. The watchdog has dragged its feet on providing new guidance to ministers. It need not be difficult. The EHRC should state that trans women must not be allowed in single-sex spaces. And when it comes to women's sport, the guidance must be clear that transgender competitors cannot take part. The Supreme Court ruling has finally settled the question of what defines sex; the EHRC must now ensure it is understood and delivered across all parts of society, with statutory underpinning.
• Janice Turner: Class snobbery is at heart of NHS gender war
Once that guidance is submitted to ministers, it must be implemented without delay. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary and equalities minister, showed admirable courage in overruling wrong-headed Labour MPs to appoint Mary-Ann Stephenson as the next chairwoman of the commission — someone who has three decades of experience in human rights law and will lead in the vein of Baroness Falkner of Margravine.
The rest of her cabinet colleagues must back Dr Stephenson too. The era in which careers could be destroyed, reputations traduced and taxpayers' money wasted denying objective reality on sex and gender should have ended with the Supreme Court ruling. It is long past time for ministers to impose their authority in the name of sanity.
