JAN MOIR: A brave NHS nurse, the trans doctor and signs that the woke spell of gender ideology is being broken at last

All eyes on my hometown of Dundee, where an employment tribunal is attracting global attention. It is a legal action that centres around a male-bodied transgender doctor and a female nurse who objected to the doctor using the female-only designated changing room in the A&E department of a Scottish NHS hospital. Proceedings are being live-tweeted. JK Rowling has taken an interest. Questions have been asked in Westminster and it is fast turning into a landmark case on self-identification in the workplace.

Dare I suggest it could even be part of a pushback against the ludicrous extravagances of gender-based ideology, breaking the woke spell that has infected society since the introduction of the Gender Recognition Act in 2010? Let's live in hope, at least. The story so far. After being suspended from her job at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, following accusations of bullying and harassment on Christmas Eve 2023, nurse Sandie Peggie took the NHS and Dr Beth Upton to tribunal, claiming sexual harassment, harassment related to a protected belief, indirect discrimination and victimisation.

NHS Fife tried and failed to have the case heard in private, but thanks to this nurse's courage, the whole sorry affair has been dragged into the open. To give you a flavour of the fiery proceedings, there was even a pre-hearing row over whether nurse Peggie could call Dr Upton a 'man' during the case. The doctor's legal team insisted that this would cause their client 'immense' distress, while the nurse's said she was within her rights.

Tell me, in plain English, why this should be so. 'Because it's the truth,' said Nurse Peggie. And there we have the entire complex world of legal gender recognition. Dr Beth Upton pictured arriving at the employment tribunal in Dundee, Scotland. The judge ruled on Peggie's side and I'm going to follow that gender prerogative here. Sue me if your feelings are also hurt by this boldness but, frankly – like so many women – I have had enough of this nonsense.

For in sport, in life and in changing rooms, it always seems that the views and validations of a man identifying as a woman are somehow deemed more important than a woman's right to the dignity of a female-only space. No one can ever tell me why the realities of women matter less than the assumed realities of men. Or indeed why we are just supposed to sit there and suck up this medicine without complaint. But it just goes to show that the plastic patriarchy is every bit as entitled as the real one.

This week, Dr Upton has already told the judge that when objections were first raised by Peggie about his presence in the changing room, he had to 'be brave' and 'pull on my big girl pants'. After being granted permission to use the female changing rooms by his line manager, the doctor refused to accept that some female colleagues might be unhappy. '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,' he sniffed.

Naomi Cunningham, the formidable barrister for Peggie, said: 'The reason why some of your female colleagues might be unhappy was obvious. You're male.'. To which Dr Upton replied: 'I'm not male. Why they might be uncomfortable with me is up to them. I would disagree that I'm male and would disagree that my presence in the changing room is an invasion of privacy in their space.'. The case, like all these cases, is absurd and fantastical; equal parts farce and tragedy.

One can have sympathy for Dr Upton's position but still understand that here is yet another trans woman demanding absolute respect and veneration for their identity while disregarding the rights of women to assert their own boundaries. To combat this, thank goodness for the eloquence of Miss Cunningham, who accused the medic of engaging in 'immersive role play' about being a woman and claimed that he was angry with Ms Peggie for 'opting out' of his fantasy because 'that one voice saying you're a man will break the spell'.

So beautifully put, so vehemently denied. 'I'm not a man. Either way, I don't need the external validation to know who I am,' said Dr Upton. But that is exactly the point. If such validation were not needed, why was the doctor in the female changing room in the first place?. Yet look at him; forcing the issue back then, now filing late accusations that Nurse Peggie was such a 'bigot' that she didn't want to work with him, thus endangering patients' lives. Yet until her suspension, Peggie had worked as an NHS nurse for 30 blameless years. That's around 10,000 days and nights, ministering to the sick and frail.

Her record is unblemished; no one has ever complained about her care, her skills, her dedication, her presence on the front line of Scottish healthcare for three decades. Isn't it more likely that as a woman who has been the victim of male sexual violence in the past, that as a woman who was suffering from a heavy menstrual flow at the time – and Nurse Peggie was both these things – she just wants a bit of peace and privacy in a man-free zone?.