What my NHS Trust have said about the Supreme Court verdict

[Opinionpolecat]

The NHS Trust I work at sent an e-mail to all staff yesterday talking about the Supreme Court ruling. They stated that the judges have said that “woman” in UK law is based on biological sex. They go on to say that they want to be clear the ruling does not change the fact that everyone is welcome in the Trust and that they are an inclusive organisation. They say everyone deserves respect and understanding including staff, patients and families. They understand that some staff members may feel they need support at this time and recommend the LGBT+ staff network where LGBT+ staff and allies can find support and advice.

It struck me that they think only LGBT+ plus staff and allies will need support and advice, and the reassurance that the trust is such an inclusive organisation. They say nothing about the fact their policies have discriminated against female staff and patients for many years. They don't even admit to it but say this wasn't their fault, it was due to NHS wide guidance and they offer no apology to female staff, patients and their allies about these years of discrimination. They say nothing about the fact that for many years some female staff and patients may not have felt welcome or included within the Trust. Have any other NHS staff had similar messages?

I certainly hope he is held accountable. He implemented this in spite of complaints by parents, and in spite of the girls not liking it.

I completely agree. And your text is perfectly written!

Employers need to act like the grown ups here, be factual, neutral, and avoid emotion. Ideally they should acknowledge - or better apologise - for having interpreted the law differently to the judgment and affected so many staff and patients through this but they won’t.

Trans women are men. I don't care if they are in the "same spaces" as me, same as I don't care if other men are in the "same spaces", but none of them should be in women's single-sex spaces. End of.

And yes, I do know some trans women. And I know they're not women.

As for the Daily Mail telling me what to think? Is that what you do, letting other people tell you what to think? I've got a brain of my own, thank you very much.

Would people be prepared to share the letters somehow? Redacted obvs to remove personal details

identical letters across all trusts - if they’re not particularly neutral is potentially newsworthy…

Upload screenshots here?

Those messages are on pretty dodgy legal ground. Trusts have been misapplying the law to the disadvantage of their female staff. If they are now sending messages which create a hostile environment for women who are upset by the discriminatory behaviour… well, sounds like more work for Tribunal Tweets.

The 1992 H&S regulations have been conveniently ignored especially as they refer to needing separate facilities for men and women (unless fully self contained) but the judgment should mean this law can be properly applied again. Health and safety practitioners will, I’m sure, find this clarity valuable.

I wondered about a jotform? Like for the auditors?

It cracks me up when people say you can't tell they are not women. There are several regulars in my town and they all look obviously like men.

Well, hopefully it will put a stop to the madness now and can all get back to some normality with it sll.

I believe trans should have safe spaces and obviously have rights and not ne discriminated against, as a lesbian woman. but to change language so much is crazy to even insinuate it is bonkers imo.

One was sent out to all staff in my Trust yesterday, similar to the one in the OP. It felt very much like it was intended to make any GC staff feel excluded and maintain the hostile environment. I’ve kept a copy.

Yes quite possibly. But those full height doors on unisex loos make them unsafe and are not a good solution. There’s an expert on MN who has posted about how dangerous they are - I’ll see if I can find the details. Basically, the issue is you can’t see if someone is on the floor.

People are ill and collapse in loos- epileptics, drug takers, diabetic hypos etc. As an example, most schools will have more than one epileptic or diabetic pupil.
Toilets are also where people tend to go to when they’re feeling ill - heart attacks etc.

Most paramedics are familiar with having to go in to toilets to help someone who has collapsed.

My Trust has said absolutely bloody nothing yet (well you can't expect senior management to be working over a long bank holiday weekend can you?)

I'm expecting a deluge of emails on Tuesday from the Disabled Staff people who are completely and totally captured and gender alphabet soup-itized reminding us all that gender feels totally overrule law of the land now, and no doubt a huge sad faced email when the Chief Exec Club get back from their break... especially since the Trust seemed to be determined to capture the whole gender identity specialist clinic niche previously so this puts a bit of a spanner in the works.

It's always been really hard for me as my client base are very... unfiltered... and see things in very simple views and aren't able to navigate the nuances of social politeness and pronoun dancing - and it's been trying to protect them in a trans-washed environment.

Full length doors in a hospital would be a particularly bad idea, obviously. For goodness sakes if you’re in organisations who propose them as a solution raise the safety issues. It’s something too many people just don’t think about - I’m very grateful to @KeepToiletsSafefor raising awareness about this.

The description ‘TRUST’ is clearly a misnomer.

Do you really not understand that men can be dangerous to women, especially those who want to break women’s boundaries? Or that women have a right to privacy and to associate in single-sex groups?

Do you really not know that for years, women have had their rights and needs ignored in favour of men, even where the law was supposedly protecting women?
For example, gender self-ID has never been legalised in this country. But it has been widely practised even by state institutions such as the police and courts. To the detriment of women.

And do you really not understand that, as our rights have been trampled down for so long, we may face a lot of work to get them restored in reality?

I agree...but they are increasingly more common place

HM Prison Service hasn't said anything about the ruling so far...but then everyone has been a tiny bit busy and distracted this week.

Ok here you go - if people upload them here I can pass them on to the journalist who has been looking into the NHS policies on single sex:
https://form.jotform.com/251073597264361

Noone will know who uploaded the file - including me

They're men, so it's the same old male aggression when they don't get their own way bollocks.

"We acknowledge that our legal interpretation (along with most HR departments) wasn't based on the stated law but on a narrow ideological strand of how a small but powerful minority would wish it to be. We further acknowledge that an entrenched groupthink led us to pursue an unjustified witch hunt against those brave enough to speak out. We did nothing to address the legitimate concerns of those women except to enable their bullies. We acknowledge our wrongdoing and unreservedly apologise to the courageous women and others who were wrongly victimised and made to feel excluded. We embrace diversity - including diversity of thought and opinion - and will do more to live up to those values in future."

There's a draft for any official body that's still confused.

Ignore them they are just vacuous

Thanks, I’ve requested access.

Good - but would their lawyers allow such an admission of fault?

Yes I would. Some of them are between groups ie women’s group to lgbt grouo but I’ll be able to get them, plus the executive team are in the emails. I’m not a member of either) but someone in my team showed me while 🙄

Not sure what happened there - can you try again to access - should be open now