(LifeSiteNews) — Scottish nurse Sandie Peggie has finally won a partial victory against National Health Service Fife two years after she objected to trans-identifying doctor “Beth” Upton’s presence in the female change rooms in December 2023. Peggie had filed a claim of “harassment related to protected belief,” sexual harassment, and “indirect discrimination and victimization.” The tribunal affirmed the claim of harassment and rejected the others.
In an initial statement, Peggie stated that she is “beyond relieved and delighted” by the results,” and that “the last two years have been agonizing for me and my family.” Her lawyer, Margaret Gribbon, called the ruling “a huge win for a tenacious and courageous woman standing up for her sex-based rights.”
After the altercation in the change room on Christmas Eve 2023, Upton had accused Peggie of “misgendering” him as well as harassment and bullying. He lodged a complaint with the Fife NHS board. Peggie, who has served as a nurse for over 30 years, was subjected to a campaign designed to tarnish her career, including accusations of “failures of patient care.”
She was suspended from her work at the Victoria hospital in January 2024 but was cleared of all misconduct charges on July 16, nearly six months later.
Peggie and her allies hoped to make her claim a test case after the U.K. Supreme Court’s April ruling that under the Equality Act “woman” is defined by biological sex. Peggie’s claim asserted that she was subjected to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act because she was expected to “share a changing room with Dr. Beth Upton,” a male who left her feeling “embarrassed and intimidated” by changing alongside her.
The tribunal, however, clearly wanted to avoid that outcome. As the Guardian reported, the tribunal’s 312-page December 8 ruling “dismissed the nurse’s claim against Upton, whose evidence was held to be ‘more reliable and materially more cohesive in nature.’” Interestingly, the tribunal did find that NHS Fife “had harassed Peggie by not revoking Upton’s permission to use the women’s changing room on an interim basis after her initial complaint until different work rotas for the pair could take effect.”
The tribunal additionally found that the NHS board had been “unreasonable” in slow walking the investigation into the “failures of patient care” allegations and taking six months to clear Peggie of the charges. The ruling emphasized Peggie’s “unblemished 30-year career until the Christmas Eve incident” but also stated that she should have “reasonably known” that the way she addressed Upton “would be offensive.”
Attempting to thread the needle, the ruling went on — in a masterclass of careful doublespeak — to affirm Peggie’s concern about having to share a change room with Upton because “a person she regarded as male was entering a space she regarded as one that was private for those who were biologically female.” With regards to Upton’s accusations against Peggie, the tribunal also admitted that “transphobic” is not a legal term.
The tribunal’s balancing act was condemned by Maya Forstater of Sex Matters, who told the Guardian that “overall we are disappointed in the tribunal’s approach, which sought to reach a spurious ‘balance’ between a woman’s right to undress with privacy and dignity and the right of an employee with the protected characteristic of gender assignment not to be discriminated against in employment … the tribunal has failed to provide them with the clarity they need in order to be confident that they can simply and clearly say ‘No’ to men who want to use women’s spaces.”
Susan Smith of For Women Scotland concurred, noting that the tribunal was attempting to avoid the clear legal implications of the Supreme Court’s April ruling. “Tribunal courts should not be trying to overwrite the judgment of the highest court in the UK,” she stated.
