NHS nurse on my facebook just changed her profile picture to this

Goodness knows any woman going to work wearing an Adult Human T shirt would very quickly be told it was unhelpful and likely to impact on impartiality and relationships with service users.

If the woman’s workplace included rainbow lanyards and pride flags then she would have a strong case for discrimination on the basis of belief.

HCPs have a duty to be impartial at work. There is no such duty outside work.

There are several MPs who are still practising doctors.

Maybe re-read my post, in which I explain that I am very GC, yet support the idiot nurse’s right to free speech?

Do you? you don't think calling her an idiot is an attack on her freedom of speech?
You don't even know her or what she does or what she might go onto do... yet she is an idiot for voicing her opinion.

FWR constantly gets posters accusing us of all being Tories, for criticising Labour on trans issues. Now, apparently we’re all Tory-haters.

When my DD worked in the NHS she would tell me that most of the staff she came across absolutely hate the Tories.

We once needed an Ambulance whilst at a restaurant, after MiL was patched up, the crew went of duty, a few people offered to by them drinks and meal, they refused saying they weren't allowed to accept gifts... but then said "if you want to help us, please don't vote Tory"

Reporting this nurse, wont change her opinions, what it might do is hurry along her decision to quit nursing.

why can't people just let others have an opinion instead of trying to control them into "rightspeak"

In a professional position you do have limits on your freedom of speech however. You have a duty of impartiality in public service and when you are speaking as a known member of an organisation, and there's often a policy on this. Teachers can't drive around with a car covered in UKIP stickers and not expect it to raise questions about racism and prejudice. Goodness knows any woman going to work wearing an Adult Human T shirt would very quickly be told it was unhelpful and likely to impact on impartiality and relationships with service users.

No, I don't find it hard to believe that someone could believe that but I will admit to assuming the answer was effectively, not many.

Maybe re-read my post, in which I explain that I am very GC, yet support the idiot nurse’s right to free speech?

And yes, I absolutely would defend someone whose party political beliefs I disagree with too. Do you really find that so hard to believe?

GC is my strongest held personal belief but without freedom of speech, all other freedoms fall away.

How people are managing to make this ok and identify as not seeing the problem I really don't know.

I do know if she wasn't using women and to Tories to show her prejudice those defending it would be furious. I really don't understand how we've gone from 'equality for all' to 'equality to me and my mates and it's fine to pick on them'. But I find it bloody tragic, I really do.

She hasn't said anything about who she would or would not treat, so this is totally irrelevant.

Would you send a TQ+ person to be treated by a nurse who in their own time declared that they would rather have to be in a space with a straight person than a TQ+ person? And be happy that oh it doesn't matter because the nurse might be so confident in her prejudice that she boasts about it on social media, but when face to face with the person she'll manage to find some professionality and treat them?

It's the same thing.

Not to mention that the point is sailing over this woman's head that she does not understand or care about women patients' privacy, dignity, autonomy, consent, safety, protected characteristics, vulnerabilities and feelings: she prioritises men, and any woman who doesn't is probably Tory. (And she is openly prejudiced against them too.)

Women are not saying they do not wish to share a space with a TQ+ person of either sex which is the attitude she is presenting with no understanding of the actual issues - some women cannot and many women do not wish to share a space with MALE people when undressed and vulnerable. How the male person identifies does not remove the problem and equality of access for them.

My question was to ask if those who believe that this falls comfortably within a nurses freedom to speak would put up such a vigorous defense if the terms, trans people and Tory were reversed?

I don't think any of those posters answered the question. Personally, I think both declarations should be freely expressed.

Somehow you have chastised my opinion and then regurgitated it.

She's not saying she sees Tories as lesser humans. They are just people she would rather not have in the same ward if she were a hospital patient. We all have people we would put into that category.

It's not a professional issue. Nurses can be patients too.

She hasn’t said she would treat anyone differently so your point is moot. It says share as in, be in the next bed, fgs.

Christ. Don’t they teach comprehension skills in schools anymore?

It's stupidly unprofessional. No one with a duty of impartial public service can go around putting up stuff in their own name declaring the parts of the general public that they see as lesser humans.

If she'd put up 'I'd rather share a ward with a disabled person than a black person' everyone would throw a fit. This bull happens because silly people have been drawn into the snobbery of 'it's ok to be prejudiced and behave in ways I'd usually lecture everyone about and signal myself as above, because it's only those kind of people. (Who are not like me and don't matter. I am much better than them.)' Which is the exact same argument used by the Nazis, colonialist destroyers of indigenous peoples, and by the slave owners of the American South.

Ffs, being a bloody Labour voter does not confer sainthood.

@Mamma2017

Yeah right.

Which NHS media policy is that? Have you got a reference?

What a load of bs

The thing about freedom of speech is that it applies even when you disagree with someone - otherwise it isn’t freedom of speech: it’s freedom to agree only.

I’m very GC and I’m Left of centre. Can you not conceive of someone supporting freedom of speech, even if they disagree with what’s said? How depressing.

And how depressing to read this thread on FWR - where we have supported so many GC women whose lives were ruined because they expressed GC views in public. We have fought for their right to express their beliefs. Yet some of us want to use the same, despicable tactics of the TRAs on other women, just because we disagree with them.

Noone is saying nurses can’t have political opinion. The issue is she is massively breaching NHS media policy which is based on all patients having the right to receive equal care no matter their characteristics/beliefs/traits. The NHS is a service to all and this does not represent that service in fact it degrades it and is derogatory to patients. What she said isn’t even political option it’s bordering on hate speech. Yes personally of course she is entitled to her opinion but as a nurse she has professional standards to uphold and yes if she’s posting nurse relating things publicly she should be upholding those standards and knows this.

This.

It's pure hypocrisy as the posters on here have been really upset when people have been reported to their employers or been otherwise targeted in some other way because of their GC views.

Stupid people post stupid shit all day long on Facebook.

This image is stupid because it implies that all trans people vote exactly the same way. Stupid and lazy, like the assumption (largely by those on the left who consider themselves progressive) that poor people, black people, Jewish people etc always vote Labour. Arrogant presumptions like this helped result in Brexit and Trump getting in. And they still don't get it.

I'm fearful of medical environments, and seeing how little healthcare staff understand basic biology, or respect women's dignity is not helpful.

her sentiment being the nurses' sentiment!

I totally agree with her sentiment.

A nurse who is kind and compassionate may not have seen those attributes in the Tory party - like ever.

And why is a nurse not allowed to express their views?

FFS - maybe try getting off yer high horse and get a grip.

It’s entirely necessary that the NHS considers the logistics of providing healthcare for trans people, whether we’ve got a Tory or Labour government in charge. There’s no hate crime there.

I just find the statement in the image really weird on so many levels.

Firstly the use of the words "trans person" as if there's just as much distress about sharing a room with a transman as a transwoman and for the same reasons.

A transman is biologically female and is not a threat in terms of risk of sexual violence. Of course among all the women who get hospitalised there will be some who are unpleasnt to be with but a transman has no greater or lesser probability of being any kind of problem so it would be irrational to care. They may be somewhat masculine in appearance of they have been taking testosterone but they are still fine in a female single sex room.

A transwoman is biologically male and is should not be considered to be any less of a threat than any other unknown male - obviously the vast majority of men are totally lovely people who would never do any harm and I am sure the same is true of transwomen but we have no way of knowning on-sight who is in the "safe" majority and who is dangerous to be with and it's stupid to be in a vulnerable state with any unknown man when you can't tell which category they are in.

So there is a rational logic for disputing the safety of a woman being expected to share with a transwoman.

There is absolutely no rational logic to dispute the safety of anyone sharing with a tory. They may be totally unable to grasp that the poor and disabled are not poor and disabled out of their own choice or moral defect, and have a totally unrealistic idea of what someone ought to be able to achieve if they just put in a bit of effort, but that doesn't make them a threat.

It's just a totally weird sentiment which seems to imply that anyone saying "I don't feel safe sharing a room with xxxx" is exactly the same as saying "I hate and despise xxxx" which shows such startling lack of intelligence and empathy that it suggests they cannot be a very good nurse.