NHS nurses in transgender changing rooms ‘feel like bigots’

Two nurses suing an NHS facility over a transgender colleague’s use of women’s locker rooms have spoken to Fox News about their call for a policy change.

Six nurses have reportedly filed a lawsuit in an employment tribunal, basing their complaint on allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

Their lawsuit centers on the facility’s locker room policies, which allow any staff member who identifies as the opposite sex to access locker rooms, restrooms or showers designated for one gender only.

Speaking to Fox News, Lisa Lockey claimed that nurses’ concerns have been “ignored…for a long time.”

“There is nothing to protect women”

Their complaints were “brushed aside” in what she said was the hope “that we would just forget about it and shut up.”

Lockey added: “By going public, we were trying to get the government’s attention, to look at the policies around this, because there are currently no protections for women. It’s literally a self-identification situation where anyone can say they identify as a woman and walk in.”

Bethany Hutchison, another nurse, added: “We want the policy to be changed (to ensure) the safety of women.”

Lockey continued: “We’ve been made to feel like bigots, transphobes, and bullies… all we want to do is defend our right to a women’s space.

“We don’t want to attack trans people. We know there are many trans people who wouldn’t hurt anyone, but we don’t know the difference between the good ones and the bad ones.”

The Conservative government’s proposals would see trans women banned from women-only NHS services, a policy that has the support of Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Under the revised NHS charter, transgender hospital patients could be given single rooms “where appropriate”, with patients having the right to request that someone of the same biological sex provide them with intimate care.

The proposal, first put forward by then health secretary Steve Barclay in October 2023, also sought to reinstate “gender-specific” language across the health service when referring to treatment and advice on menopause and cervical and ovarian cancer.

However, a discrimination lawyer has said any plans to exclude transgender women from women’s hospital wards are not only “illegal” but “unrealistic”.