Employment Tribunal finds NB does not meet PC of GR

[DrProfessorYaffle]

https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions/h-lockwood-v-cheshire-and-wirral-nhs-foundation-trust-and-others-2401211-slash-2024-and-2407178-slash-2024

"Although the claimant has taken steps to change attributes of their sex
from female, by changing their name to a name which can be identified as of
either sex, and has changed their preferred pronouns, those are not in our
view attributes which are for the purpose of moving from one sex to the other,
they are steps in the process of moving away from the female sex to a
different gender identity, ie that of non binary. The claimant is not proposing,
nor do they intend to take any steps to reassign their sex from that of female
to male.
105. We therefore find that the claimant does not have the protected
characteristic of gender reassignment."

I would bet quite a lot that in that photo there are several people who would run a mile from any attempt to talk to them about sexuality or gender identity. It's utter tokenism.

The badge is a simple, visual symbol identifying that, if an NHS staff member or volunteer is wearing one, they are a person who an LGBT+ person (or their friends or family members) can talk to about issues relating to sexuality and gender identity.

I can't be the only person who activity avoids deep conversations with their colleagues about their personal lives? I don't think that males me unsafe....

An NHS HCP shouldn’t need a special badge / lanyard / certificate for people to be able to talk to them about what is worrying them. It’s what being a healthcare professional is all about.

This.

It goes beyond the workplace too. For example some teachers at my children's school use preferred pronouns in their email signatures. The school also heavily pushes a message of "kindness" to the children that it's important to use the pronouns that are requested by someone because it's about "respect".

By logical implication, any teacher who uses preferred pronouns in emails is telling children who might believe themselves to be trapped in the wrong body that they are safe. Presumably safer than the children's parents (in their own eyes).. and they are not thinking that non-affirming parents might have good reasons for not wholeheartedly celebrating their child's journey along the gender affirmation conveyor belt towards irrerversible surgery.

Obviously in the workplace there are other consequences for anyone deemed "unsafe" by implication e.g. job loss, social ostracisation.... and/or being named as a respondent in a tribunal.

Around 2019 the man who’s now CEO of CDDFT, Steve Russell, became CEO of a trust I worked at and the message we got from his meetings with management was that he was very strongly in favour of all staff signing the declaration so they could wear the rainbow badge. We were told he would be noting how many badges were worn as he visited the various depts and services. Consequently we were all expected to sign these bits of paper and wear these badges lest Steve visit us and find us lacking.

From my googling it looks like he’s had a number of roles since then. I can’t say I think he’s a true believer, just a bandwagon jumper, but nor do I think he’ll do any actual good for women working at or under the care of CDDFT.

edit: I quoted because it was the tokenism comment that started my chain of thought - I completely agree!

edit #2 😳: CDDFT is the trust featured in the Darlington nurses tribunal and also in the recent damning report about breast cancer care.

Maybe there will be a time soon when NHS departments will be issued with progress pride branded bins where all this toot can be deposited.

Where there is a need for branding it should surely just say NHS

Considering the way some of the rainbow badge and rainbow lanyard crew behave, they're the least 'safe' of anyone. Deeply judgemental and authoritarian. If I was looking for someone at work to tell my troubles to, the rainbow crowd would be the last on my list.

At Hammersmith tube they write quotations on a whiteboard. Today's was "No matter how kind you are, no matter how much effort you make, an ungrateful person will never be grateful ". I thought of the MN vipers when I read it!

Bristol Council has that covered for you 😂

https://dailysceptic.org/2025/11/30/cash-strapped-council-spends-1500-on-lgbt-bin-carts/

I'm not quite sure the council thought this through when they decided that refuse trucks should be the venue for Pride / rainbow logos