Nurse who spoke up for women has been victim of witch hunt

HERE’S a single question at the heart of the legal case rocking Scotland at the moment.

- Sonia Sodha

Should a female nurse be expected to share a work changing room with a male colleague? Should she be OK undressing in front of him, and being exposed to him in a state of undress?

Both common sense and the law produce the same answer: no. It’s a violation of her dig nity, privacy and safety. It’s also unlawful: single-sex facilities at work must be reserved for men or women only. Yet NHS Fife has been trying to defend its unwritten policy of allowing some male employees to use female changing rooms.

The legal case has been brought by a nurse, Sandie Peggie, who objected to her manager when it became clear a male doctor who identifies as female, Dr Beth Upton, was using the female changing room. She got nowhere despite raising it on more than one occasion. A few months later, she found herself urgently needing to use the changing room after heavy menopausal bleeding; Upton’ was also in there and she felt embarrassed and intimidated, and raised her past experience of sexual assault to explain her need for single-sex facilities.