Nurse Can Refer to Transgender Doctor as a Man in Legal Victory

A nurse can refer to a transgender doctor she claims she was forced to get changed in front of at work as a man in a legal victory. The Telegraph has more.

Employment judge Sandy Kemp rejected an NHS request to impose an order on Sandie Peggie, which would have prevented her from using male pronouns or terms to refer to Beth Upton, a doctor who identifies as a transgender woman.

Despite NHS Fife insisting that both the “sex and gender” of Dr Upton is female and that allowing “misgendering” would amount to unlawful harassment, the judge said forcing Ms Peggie and her lawyers to use terms they consider “inaccurate” would be unfair.

Ms Peggie believes that Dr Upton is male and therefore should not have been in female changing rooms in Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, where she says she encountered him on three occasions.

She is taking action against both NHS Fife and Dr Upton personally in a case which could have wider implications for how easily trans women can access female single-sex spaces.

Mr Kemp also said the tribunal itself should use “neutral” terms for Dr Upton as “standard practice”, following claims that panel members referring to the medic as a female could imply bias.

However, the direction is not binding and pronouns may be used where “considered appropriate”. …

Mr Kemp acknowledged that “misgendering” of Dr Upton is likely to prove “painful and distressing” but said he was not convinced by claims that, in the context of an employment tribunal, it would in itself amount to unlawful harassment.

However, he said the bar for harassment could be met if male pronouns are used “gratuitously and offensively on a repeated basis”.

He said Ms Peggie and her representatives “may wish to reflect” on whether it was “necessary or appropriate” to use male terms to refer to Dr Upton, even though they are not banned from doing so.

Worth reading in full.

Just a small victory at this point then, as it only applies within the tribunal proceedings, and then only when not used “gratuitously”. But a victory nonetheless.

Clearly what’s needed is a law that makes clear that biologically accurate pronouns and terminology may never be understood as in themselves constituting harassment. It may be polite to use the form of address one is asked to use, but it should never be compelled. Truth-speakers must always be free to dissent.