Scotland News
A transgender doctor is “only asking for basic respect” when it comes to having their gender identity accepted, an NHS employment tribunal has heard.
Dr Beth Upton also repeatedly insisted on being a woman after being called a man by lawyers during cross-examination.
The medic complained to NHS Fife after nurse Sandie Peggie said Dr Upton should not be allowed to use the women’s changing room at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
The nurse had left the room on two occasions where she encountered Dr Upton, before the pair exchanged words during a third encounter in December 2023.
Ms Peggie argued that sharing the room with Dr Upton amounted to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act. The health board suspended the nurse for alleged bullying and harassment in January 2024.
Dr Upton told the tribunal: “I am aware that some people are uncomfortable with trans people.
“But I don’t think that automatically overrides a trans person’s right to access a changing room which aligns with their gender identity.”
The tribunal had previously heard that Dr Upton began transitioning in 2022.
Dr Upton said it was agreed with a supervisor that the medic would use the female changing room after starting work at the hospital in August 2023.
The doctor also said that a Gender Recognition Certificate should not be “required for a trans person’s gender identity to be validated or respected” .
PA MediaNaomi Cunningham, representing Ms Peggie, told the medic: “It’s obvious why someone would be unhappy to see you in the changing room.
“You’re male and women would feel uncomfortable with you in the changing room.”
Dr Upton responded: “I am not male. My presence is not an invasion of the privacy of their space, but I can’t speak for how they feel.”
The doctor told the court that biological sex was a “nebulous term which doesn’t really mean anything”.
Dr Upton defined gender as “someone’s sincerely expressed identity and way of understanding themselves” which was “deeply personal and varies person to person”.
The medic added: “Biology is significantly more complicated than a stick figure with trousers and a stick figure with a skirt.”
The doctor said that the changing room would ideally have individual, lockable changing cubicles to give people more privacy.
The lawyer then suggested that Dr Upton could have requested a private changing space in the hospital.
However the doctor disagreed and said this could have potentially been “othering” for a trans woman and would have required a discussion, adding: “It’s not a decision I get to make.”
Ms Cunningham suggested the medic was asking Ms Peggie to “submit” and say she believed that Dr Upton was a woman which they “both know to be false”.
“We don’t both know that to be false,” said Dr Upton. “I know it to be true.
“I am only asking for basic respect, I am not asking anyone at work to submit to me.”
When asked why Ms Peggie did not want to be in the changing room with the medic, Dr Upton said: “I presume it was because of my trans status.”
PA MediaDr Upton told the tribunal Ms Peggie had avoided being in the changing room when the medic was there on two occasions in August and late October or early November 2023.
“There was some kind of issue here,” the doctor told the tribunal. “It could be based on anything and deeply felt.
“It’s not up to me to pry and it’s up to them if they want to express it through a professional or formal channel.
“Whether it makes me upset is a bit irrelevant in this instance.”
The pair exchanged words in the women’s changing room late on Christmas Eve 2023, however the two disagree on what was said.
Ms Peggie previously told the tribunal that the doctor was getting undressed during the conversation, but Dr Upton has denied this.
Dr Upton claimed Ms Peggie initiated the conversation and said the doctor should not be using the women’s changing room and that she was intimidated.
“I was trying my best to explain, de-escalate and understand,” said Dr Upton.
The medic urged the nurse to report her issue formally.
Dr Upton claimed Ms Peggie was aggressive during the exchange, adding: “I consider the act of waiting for a colleague to leave, confronting her, asking personal questions, and using pejorative language inappropriate.”
The tribunal continues.
