Advocacy group Christian Concern is calling on the Health Secretary to intervene in the case of five nurses in Darlington who are taking an NHS Trust to court over being forced to share a changing room with a man.
The nurses, dubbed the ‘Darlington Five’, claim they were repeatedly ignored by senior management after raising concerns about having to share a changing room with a biological male identifying as 'Rose' who they said admitted not taking female hormones.
They say some nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital were in tears before working on wards after having to get undressed in front of a man.
They announced their case against County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust in June and are now hoping for a meeting with the Health Secretary Wes Streeting. He’s posted his support for the nurses on social media saying “I’m horrified that they’ve had to resort to legal action. We’ve got to find a better way through this and I’d be happy to meet them. We’ve got to find a way through that treats trans people with respect and respects women’s safe spaces.”
Since the launch of legal action, the hospital and Trust has continued to allow the female changing room to be accessed by anyone who identifies as a woman. It permits any member of staff who ‘identifies’ as the opposite gender to access single-sex changing rooms, toilets or showers.
In July, the hospital’s managers created a ‘temporary’ locker room for anyone uncomfortable with the current setup.
However, the nurses say the room had nothing in it other than one chair and a hook on the back of the door. They said they had to leave their belongings in piles on the floor, causing an infection and security risk.
Lockers have since been provided but the nurses say the ‘temporary solution’ has served to humiliate and degrade the nurses and further isolate them.
In a joint statement, the Darlington Five said: “We continue to be appalled at how we and our female colleagues are being humiliated and dehumanised by the hospital and Trust. Instead of listening and acting on our concerns and the public and media outcry, they have doubled down, putting transgender ideology before women’s safety.
“We were told the locker room would be ‘temporary’ until a solution was found. This locker room, however, does not appear to be temporary and no solution has been found.
“Changing in this room has made us feel humiliated, embarrassed, isolated, ostracised, degraded and dehumanised.
“Ultimately this 'locker room' still falls under the same policy as any other changing room facility in the Trust and, therefore, if a male identifying as a female wanted to access it, they could.
“We will not give in to any intimidation and bullying and will continue to stand for justice and for women and girls across the country in this matter.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “This is a hospital where ideology has trumped biology. We call on Wes Streeting to intervene and protect and uphold biological reality in the NHS.”
Since launching their legal action the nurses have received hundreds of cards of support from women across the UK, including from the author JK Rowling.