It was all her fault.

A veteran nurse was viewed as “misbehaving” for refusing to share a female changing room with a transgender doctor, her lawyer has claimed in a landmark tribunal.

Dr Kate Searle, an A&E consultant, recalled being told about two occasions when Sandie Peggie left the women’s changing facilities at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, when Dr Beth Upton entered, causing the doctor to feel “uncomfortable”.

Isn’t that classic? Man bounces into women’s changing facility and it’s the woman who leaves who is causing discomfort. Classic classic classic. “You bitch, your nose hurt my hand when I punched it.”

She said that Peggie could have been reported to her manager, but Upton, who is biologically male but identifies as female, deciding against pursuing the matter further.

Awwww, isn’t he generous.

But of course he did not decide against further forcing himself on women in their changing rooms.

Peggie confronted Upton on the third occasion on which they met in the female-only space, on Christmas Eve 2023, claiming the doctor had no right to be there.

Not claiming but pointing out. Obviously he had no right to be there.

Searle was Upton’s line manager and, giving evidence on Tuesday, said that the doctor had informed her about the two occasions, in August and October 2023, in which Peggie had left the changing room when Upton entered, without saying anything.

Documentation showed that Upton had been given the option by Searle to “take the matter further” in late October that year.

That is, Searle, a woman, encouraged Upton to punish a woman for not staying in a changing room after he entered it. A woman wants women to stay in spaces where they are vulnerable if a man comes in. What next? Holding their legs apart so that he can rape them more easily?

“At the time you discussed this with Dr Upton both you and he [Upton] considered Sandie’s choice to remove herself from the changing room if he was there, to be misbehaving, didn’t you?” Naomi Cunningham, Peggie’s lawyer, said. “She was behaving badly and making him [Upton] feel uncomfortable.”

Searle replied: “Beth felt uncomfortable that Sandie appeared to not want to engage, she was the only one behaving like this and that was why Beth felt uncomfortable with someone behaving differently like that. I don’t agree we would have classed it as misbehaviour.”

Why did Searle not worry about Sandie’s feeling uncomfortable? Why is it only “Beth”‘s discomfort that matters? Why is Beth so very important while Sandie is so very insignificant?

The consultant said she had checked when introducing Upton to the department, in August 2023, that the doctor was comfortable using the female facilities.

Searle agreed with Cunningham that she had proceeded on the basis that it wasn’t “anyone else’s business” whether Upton, who began transitioning to live as female in January 2022, was going to use the women’s changing room or not.

Because women who aren’t men just don’t matter? It’s only women who are men who matter? When did we decide this? Why did we decide this? How can we undecide it?

“Beth identifying as a female has every right, under the Equality and Human Right Commission Act [sic] to use the facilities under the gender in which she identifies,” Searle said.

Every right? Moral as well as official? I beg to differ.

However, she went on to admit that many women may feel uncomfortable about taking their clothes of in the presence of a man.

But oh well, tough shit, sucks to be them, doesn’t give them the right to tell him to get out, or even to leave themselves.

Cunningham put it to Searle that her suggestion that she might have facilitated a conversation between the nurse and Upton “about why she wasn’t willing to take her clothes off in a room that he was present in” would have been “a very long way from kind or compassionate” to Peggie.

A very very very long way.

Searle added: “That’s not how I would have directly approached them nor how I did directly approach it. I was suggesting ways that you might manage a situation when two parties are uncomfortable.

“We would have discussed, if Dr Upton felt very uncomfortable and it was affecting them in coming to work, then it would have been appropriate to take it further, whether it’s just a discussion between parties to say how can we work through this together, with compassion and kindness and to make sure everyone is safe.”

Cunningham put it to Searle that Peggie was clearly feeling uncomfortable with sharing facilities with Upton, after being told about the two occasions in which the nurse self-excluded from female changing rooms.

The lawyer asked: “What steps did you take to offer her any compassion or kindness?”

Searle replied: “I didn’t make that approach.”

Exactly so. WHY NOT????

The tribunal about an hour ago:

[NC is Naomi Cunningham; KS is Kate Searle, the doctor who helped Upton make a big stink; Pete is the star of a thought experiment about women telling an obvious man to get out of their space]

On the one hand you have Pete, a man, and yes women are allowed to tell Pete to get out of their space, and on the other hand you have Upton, a man, and no women are not allowed to tell Upton to get out of their space because…uh…uh…uh…

It’s about god damn time.

U.S. Olympic Officials Bar Transgender Women From Women’s Competitions

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee quietly changed its eligibility rules on Monday to bar transgender women from competing in Olympic women’s sports, and now will comply with President Trump’s executive order on the issue, according to a post on the organization’s website.

The new policy, expressed in a short, vaguely worded paragraph, is tucked under the category of “USOPC Athlete Safety Policy” on the site, and does not include details of how the ban will work.

How did the non-ban work? How did the ban work before trans ideology came along and shot holes in everything? What “details” do you need of how men staying out of women’s sports would “work”? Do we need details of how keeping hungry bears out of the Olympics would work?

The committee’s new policy means that the national governing bodies of sports federations in the United States — which oversee sporting events for all ages, from youth to masters’ competitions — now must follow the U.S.O.P.C.’s lead, according to several chief executives of sports within the Olympic movement. The U.S.O.P.C. did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S.A. Fencing, for example, posted a new policy for transgender athletes on Friday, to be effective on Aug. 1. Those new rules still allow trans women to compete, but only in the men’s category. The policy says that nonbinary athletes, transgender men and intersex athletes will also be limited to competing in the men’s category.

Good. It’s about god damn time. It should never have been otherwise.

The International Olympic Committee has been struggling for years with the issue of transgender and intersex athletes in sports, coming up with various rules at various times, including sex testing, in an effort to balance fairness with inclusivity.

This is sports we’re talking about. Sport at the elite level is all about exclusivity. There are winners and losers. That’s how competitive sports work. If they become so inclusive that nobody ever wins, they’re a different kind of thing.

Big Trans is Watching You.

The Australian Greens’ new ­leader, Larissa Waters, is resisting calls to intervene in the widening row over the minority party’s ­embrace of transgender rights and halt a purge of members who don’t toe the line.

The expulsion of Greens co-founder Drew Hutton has brought to a dramatic head tensions around the alleged hounding of those who question the party’s pro-trans platform.

It’s not all that alleged when we can see it happening in real time.

Mr Hutton said upwards of 30 former Greens members had reached out to him about being expelled for challenging the party’s position on gender. Most were women. Many more quit after being subjected to harassment for voicing reservations about trans people accessing ­normally segregated spaces such as public and school toilets, changing rooms or in sports where transitioning boys competed against girls.

…

Cheryl Hercus, 70, who ­proudly identifies as a lesbian woman, said she was forced out of the Victorian Greens after posting links to articles that were critical of gender identity theory on social media. She resigned her membership rather than contest the complaints made against her.

“We were basically painted as being fundamentally racist if we believed that biological reality was reality,” she said. “It just became obvious to me that the whole of the party had been captured by this ideology and to try and fight it from within was just huge.”

Sounds all too familiar.

A poignant bit of the testimony:

Asked why she told colleagues before Christmas Eve that she would speak to Dr Upton directly, Ms Peggie said: “No one appeared willing to speak to Beth on behalf of myself or my colleagues.

“I hoped that by speaking to him personally, he might be able to realise he was making us feel uncomfortable by changing in a female changing area, and the reason why, in the hope he would understand and change elsewhere.”

…

She said the incident lasted just two minutes and that she hoped the conversation might help Dr Upton understand.

Asked why she didn’t report the matter, Ms Peggie said: “I was hopeful that Beth would accept my concerns and the reasons why I felt uncomfortable.

“I tried to give him an example so he could appreciate the severity of the situation. I told them I had a difficult history with men. I didn’t think it was necessary to speak to anyone, because I was hoping, on reflection, Beth would understand.”

She said she was “upset that the interaction did not seem to have had any influence on the way Beth felt, and I realised from his reaction that he did not seem to care about the stress he was causing me.”

She thought he might understand if she explained it. She thought if he understood he would have some empathy.

But no. He didn’t care. He cared only about his own feelings. The much more reasonable, reality-based, of the earth earthy feelings that women have around men and bodies and menstruation and safety are just so much fluff to him, while his feelings about pretending to be a woman are rock-solid and massively important.

Thank fuck some of us know the basics.

Srsly. A medical doctor, under oath, saying what sex babies are is a “decision” and that she’s not an expert.

From the Upton/Peggie hearing today:

Dr Searle says she first met Dr Upton in August 2023 and is her “educational and clinical supervisor”. She says she is the main point of contact for junior and resident doctors in her line of management and to support career progression and wellbeing support. She says she has known Ms Peggie since she started working at the emergency department at Victoria Hospital.

Dr Searle says she was not aware that Ms Peggie held gender critical views before the incident on Christmas Eve 2023 or any issues with these views.

That is…Dr Searle says she was not aware that Ms Peggie knew the difference between women and men before Christmas Eve 2023.

Wouldn’t you kind of think all medical staff at a hospital would be expected, or indeed required, to know that? Isn’t it pretty basic information in a medical setting?

Dr Searle is asked about what discussions she had with Dr Upton about using the female changing rooms. She said: “I checked that she knew where the female changing room was and was happy to use it and had used it previously used it in another job. That was the extent of the discussion.”

She then added: “Beth had used the female changing rooms in her previous job as a doctor and was happy and felt comfortable doing so, so I didn’t make any further suggestion.”

Fabulous. As long as the man is happy, it simply doesn’t matter what the women feel. Might they be unhappy? Might they feel not so comfortable? Meh. Doesn’t matter.

Dr Searle said she was “concerned for Beth and her welfare” when she received an email on Christmas Day 2023 about a “very upsetting” incident which had left Dr Upton “distressed”…

She is asked what she thinks of Dr Upton being told by Ms Peggie she cannot be in the changing room because “it’s wrong”. Dr Searle said: “I was very concerned and I knew it was upsetting and distressing for Beth and I knew there was no NHS Fife policy on this.”

She is then asked what she thought of Ms Peggie telling Dr Upton “she wasn’t a woman”. Dr Searle said: “Again I was very concerned for Beth because I knew it was an upsetting thing to say and also under NHS Fife’s hate policy this was verbal harassment for her.”

All the concern is for “Beth.” None of the concern is for Ms Peggie. Why is that? Why is this dogma so massively watertight that not an atom of concern for women is ever allowed to sneak in? How does that work? Would Searle enjoy having to take her clothes off while Upton watched her?

She is then asked if Ms Peggie questioning Dr Upton’s chromosomes was appropriate. Dr Searle said: “I can only imagine how upsetting and invasive a question that would be for Beth and it is not relevant for a colleague to ask another colleague.

“Beth identifies as female and it does not matter what her chromosomes are to her.”

But it does matter to women what sex people are when they’re cozily gathered in a take your clothes off room. What matters to “Beth” is not the only relevant criterion here.

Dr Searle said Dr Upton was “extremely shaken and distressed” when the pair discussed what had happened with Ms Peggie in the changing room. She said they went through the NHS Fife hate incident policy together and agreed that a datix needed to be completed, which Dr Searle and Dr Upton did together. They also discussed reporting this to the policy and Dr Upton said she would think about it. They then looked at Dr Upton’s shift patterns to see if she felt safe to come into work.

I think that must be “They also discussed reporting this to the police” – which is new information to me at least. A new low. Yes go complain to the police that a female nurse doesn’t want a male doctor in the room where she has to take her clothes off. With any luck she’ll resist arrest and they’ll have to get violent. What fun for everyone except her.

There was this:

And then there was this:

(I would suggest the majority in Scotland do) – are ‘right wing bigots’ is not only insulting, it’s probably defamatory, and it is definitely not good politics. I have no idea if Ms Bardell wishes to re-enter politics (she lost her Westminster seat last year) but if she and her party are serious about winning support, then I suggest she stops insulting women who believe in material reality. And FWIW Jo Cherry is one of the smartest, charismatic, empathetic women I know. I may disagree with her on independence, but if I ever needed help I know I could depend on her.

So there.

Anything missing?

No mention of women.

So naturally he knows what JK Rowling should be talking about better than JK Rowling does.

Women are in fact allowed to talk about issues and policies that affect women.

Nailed it.

I’m naturally 5’8” as long as I’m wearing four inch heels. pic.twitter.com/TxqvEZEeGG

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 20, 2025

A couple of things…

One, who the hell takes a jet plane to MINOT, NORTH DAKOTA? How does Minot, North Dakota even have an airport? We’re not talking Minneapolis here, we’re not even talking Fargo, we’re talking Minot. The one in North Dakota.

Two, more seriously, wtf?

The pilot of a commercial airliner has said he needed to make an “aggressive maneuver” to avoid colliding with a US air force B-52 bomber as it landed in Minot, North Dakota, on Friday.

The SkyWest airlines pilot said he had been cleared to land on a trip from Minneapolis-St Paul (MSP) to Minot when he spotted the vast nuclear-capable bomber on his right side and was told to go around.

Well sure, I’m confident he was more than happy to go around, but he’s supposed to know to do that with plenty of time to spare, not seconds before the two planes collide and everybody dies. I think all parties prefer it that way.

“So, sorry for the aggressive maneuver,” the pilot said. “It caught me by surprise, and it’s not normal at all. I don’t know why they didn’t give us a heads up, because the airbase does have radar, and nobody said, ‘Hey there’s also a B-52 in the pattern.’”

The pilot described the experience as “not a fun day at work”.

I don’t know, maybe all the aircraft control people have been drafted to round up more immigrants.

This sounds weirdly familiar…

The 92-page report, “‘You Feel Like Your Life is Over’: Abusive Practices at Three Florida Immigration Detention Centers Since January 2025,” documents that people detained at Krome North Service Processing Center (Krome), Broward Transitional Center (BTC), and the Federal Detention Center (FDC) in Miami have been held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, subjected to degrading treatment, and have not been given access to prompt and adequate medical care…

…

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has driven forward a surge in immigration detention nationally, with ICE data showing that 45 out of 181 authorized detention facilities across the country exceeded their contractual capacity in mid-April.

The number of people detained by ICE in Florida has also surged, driven by federal and state policies that have expanded the scope of immigration enforcement. At Krome, the detained population more than tripled in the first three months of 2025, reaching nearly three times its operational capacity. FDC, a federal prison that in recent years had not been used for immigration detention, began holding hundreds of immigrants in February.

…

The researchers found that Krome detainees have been routinely held in freezing, overcrowded cells without bedding, denied access to hygiene, and subjected to prolonged and unjustifiable shackling during transportation. People detained at the three centers have been unable to get necessary medical care, including for chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and HIV. Women have been held at Krome, a men’s detention facility, without access to gender-appropriate care or privacy. At least two deaths in custody—one at Krome and one at BTC—may have been linked to medical neglect.

…

In one particularly degrading incident, detainees at FDC were forced to eat while shackled with their hands behind their backs. “We had to bend over and eat off the chairs with our mouths, like dogs,” said Harpinder Chauhan, a British entrepreneur who had been detained by ICE at a regular immigration appointment. Chauhan, who suffers from diabetes and heart disease, said he was denied insulin at various points during his detention at Krome, FDC, and BTC, including at BTC for nearly a week, after which he collapsed and was taken to a hospital.

The researchers documented widespread overcrowding, with detainees held for days for “processing” in frigid conditions, sitting and sleeping on cold concrete floors in rooms designed to hold far fewer people for much shorter periods. One man described sleeping next to a toilet in a room so crowded that people had to step over each other to move. Another said he was denied access to soap or water for 20 consecutive days. At Krome after processing, some cells held more than double their intended capacity. 

What does that sound like? What does it remind us of?

We all know.

Trump is shouting at a football team to change its name back to the racist one they dropped. What a worthy cause!

Trump threatened on Sunday to interfere with a deal to build a new football stadium in Washington, D.C., unless the local NFL team, now known as the Commanders, changes its name back to Redskins.

Yeah fer sher, what right do they have to stop calling themselves “redskins” just because it’s a crude trashy insult?

The American football team dropped the name Redskins in 2020 after decades of criticism that it was a racial slur with links to the U.S. genocide of the Indigenous population.

But Mommmmmmm, Trump grew up watching movies about cowboys and redskins and he loves that old racist vibe.

Trump had called for a return to the name Redskins – and for the Cleveland Guardians baseball team to once again adopt the name Indians – on other occasions, but on Sunday he added that he may take official action.

“I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

What’s ridiculous about Commanders? Apart from the fact that “Commander” is one of Trump’s titles of course.

Anyway it’s none of his business and he should go take a long walk on a short pier.

One or two further thoughts on the “what even is my own sex??” issue.

Isla Bumba, 29, is a senior “diversity officer” at NHS Fife. At an employment tribunal on Wednesday, she was questioned about her advice that a trans woman – that is, a biological male – should be allowed to use a hospital’s female changing room. And, during one extraordinary exchange, she told the tribunal that she doesn’t know what sex she is.

“I would hazard a guess that I would be female,” she said, with all solemnity. “But no one knows what their chromosomes are, or their hormonal composition, unless you’ve had that tested – and I at least have not.”

Wait. And then wait some more.

She would hazard a guess?

What, because she’s never known? Her whole life it’s been up in the air what sex she is? Really? Despite the female-coded hair and clothes? Despite having developed breasts? Despite menstruation? It’s just pure guesswork? It’s a guess she would have to hazard?

Did she never pick up cues in childhood that she was a girl, or that everyone around her considered her a girl? Has she been in uncertainty all 29 years of her life?

She can’t have literally thought she was just guessing, so why say it? Especially in court?

Well, because it’s the dogma. But then what makes the dogma so attractive that she says such a ridiculous thing? Why doesn’t the dogma repel her or make her laugh or both?

She doesn’t really think she’s hazarding a guess that she’s a woman. If she did she wouldn’t dress the way she does or wear her hair the way she does. If she did think that she would hedge her bets in public.

For the billionth time, I can’t make any sense of it. It’s not like campaigning against racism, or war, or xenophobia, or theocracy. It’s like campaigning against your own body, which seems a tad counter-productive.

There’s this one bit…

Asked about the reference to the Scottish prison story, she said: “It was in the media at the time. I was trying to give [Dr Upton] an example of how I and other women feel.”

Asked whether she treated Dr Upton with dignity and respect, Ms Peggie replied: “Yes, because Dr Upton’s presence there and the board’s decision to permit him to use a female-only changing room was unlawful.

“I felt upset, humiliated and harassed to find him there, particularly when I had a menstrual flood to deal with. I remained as calm as I could, but I felt strongly that he should not be there.”

His presence there was an ongoing thing, but on this particular occasion it was heightened for Peggie because she had bled through. See? Upton’s intrusions were a standing problem but that particular evening his presence was even more intrusive and disgusting because Peggie needed to change out of a bloody uniform. That’s not fun with anyone around, but a man? A higher status man? A taller huger higher status man? A fucking nightmare. And this piece of shit didn’t even have the basic empathy to realize that and get the hell out.

“His insistence that he was entitled to be there meant I felt I had no option but to try different explanations of why his presence made me and many of my colleagues uncomfortable.”

Think about that for a while. There she was, in that humiliating situation, asking him to go away, and he fucking refused. He paid zero attention to her humiliation and discomfort, and focused only on what he wanted – which was to stay in the room with her knowing she wanted him gone. He is a horrible human being. Selfish, ruthless, indifferent to everyone but himself.

The ideology does this to people. Everything else fades out and disappears, and all that’s left is Mai Idenninee. Other people’s wants and needs are so much dust, and only the Trans Person matters, at least if he’s a man.

Who in hell would ever want this guy as a doctor?

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Sobbing Upton.

For the moment, let’s set aside NHS Fife’s outrageous contempt for women’s safety that is the central issue of this proceeding. Maybe Upton deserves a little more attention and scrutiny, but not necessarily the kind he’s craving. Let’s pretend that Upton really was as upset as he claims, and as upset as is being claimed on his behalf. Let’s say his sobs weren’t artfully summoned crocodile tears. They don’t say anything good or healthy about him. Clearly his distress wasn’t a matter of his physical safety. Let’s look at the whole question of sex, class, status, and power that Ophelia has been emphasizing here, and his apparent shock at never having been spoken to like that in his entire life. If he’s actually that disturbed and distraught at having his delusional entitlement challenged, maybe he doesn’t have the emotional maturity and stability to be a doctor?

In his professional capacity, he’s supposed to be helping other people, as part of a team of health-care practitioners, not satisfying his own, selfish, fetishistic desires. If he can’t keep the latter out of the former, then perhaps medicine is not the field for him. Maybe both patients and colleagues deserve someone more devoted to the job they’re supposed to be doing, than they are to pleasuring themselves. Maybe NHS Fife should be more invested in protecting their female nursing staff and less in enabling Upton’s kink. Because enabling is what they’re doing if they’re defending and enforcing his “right” to go out of his way, bypassing a more conveniently located changing room, in order to use a space for female nurses, that is never used by female doctors. Without the excuse of a trans “identity”, what Upton did would likely have resulted in a disciplinary procedure against him.

What she did know, however, was that Dr Upton’s right to use the women’s changing room had already been affirmed by senior staff months earlier. Consultants had been told in autumn 2023 that DU—biologically male, in his 20s—was entitled to use the female CR. Yet no similar communication was ever issued to nurses, many of whom used the same space.

Those who granted that permission should be disciplined or sacked, the same for those who failed to communicate this policy to nurses and other female staff who would be subjected to illegal male intrusion as a result.

Labour MP says people who don’t believe in magic gender are swivel-eyed loons.

A Labour backbencher has been filmed deriding “transphobes” as “swivel-eyed” and suggesting they are “not very well people”. Tim Roca described the Supreme Court judgment on trans rights as “very depressing” and rejected his own party’s stance that it had brought “clarity”.

…

He made the remarks during a talk he gave earlier this month at an event hosted by the University of Westminster, called Queering Academia.

“I think actually the UK has now really gone down the rabbit hole into the way the United States discusses issues of gender, race, poverty, all of that,” he said. “So if we can bring the debate back into being one based on rationalism and compassion – and actually as we know, the facts – I think that’s a much better place for all of us to be.”

Yes, quite: the facts. Fact #1: humans can’t change sex.

“What we can’t be, is we can’t look like the alternative version of the transphobes. The best argument against them is a conversation with them, because they look swivel-eyed and honestly, they’re not very well people, I don’t think, the ones that I’ve met. So we have to make sure, as passionate we are, that we’re talking passionately but sensibly and bringing people around.”

By insisting that humans can change sex. It’s not going to work, chum.

Speaking at a panel event titled Leading While Queer, he attacked the Supreme Court judgment that womanhood is legally defined by biological sex.

Because “womanhood” should obviously be defined by whatever someone says, so if a serial rapist says he’s a woman he is a woman and you had better shut up.

He also criticised Baroness Falkner, the outgoing chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), and said Labour MPs were pushing for a pro-Trans replacement.

Baroness Falkner came under attack from Left-wing backbenchers after the watchdog issued guidance in light of the verdict, banning trans women from female toilets.

“I challenged the equalities watchdog after that very depressing Supreme Court judgment,” the Macclesfield MP said. “The EHRC is clearly led by somebody who is not a friend of our community. In my view, I want to make sure the next head of the EHRC is somebody who is a friend of our community. And I’ve got colleagues in Parliament who are working really, really hard on that. But challenging the EHRC interim guidance, which is appalling, was really, really important.”

He disputed that the judgment had brought “clarity”, saying it had “caused fear and incredible uncertainty and…undermined protections” for trans people.”

Protections for female people of course don’t matter at all.

On Day 3 of Peggie v NHS Fife & Dr B Upton, the tribunal heard from Dr Elspeth Pitt, a senior consultant who encountered Dr Upton in visible emotional distress on Christmas Eve 2023. What unfolded was a revealing portrait of a system primed to cushion one staff member’s emotional response—so long as that staff member identified as trans.

Pitt testified that she found Upton “very shaken,” “pale,” and “sobbing” after a confrontation with nurse Sandy Peggie (SP) in the female changing room. The details were vague—Pitt could not recall the exact words—but Upton felt “cornered” and likened the encounter to hearing something as hurtful as a comparison to a rapist. Pitt moved the conversation to a wellbeing room and let him talk, then advised him to go home and rest.

But Upton felt cornered.

Did he now.

Why why why did Dr Pitt not pause to wonder how Peggie felt? Why in hell did it not occur to her to ask Upton whether Peggie might have felt “cornered” to find a man in the changing room with her? Why did it not occur to her to pause for a minute and compare the two people who were in that women’s changing room? How did she manage not to remember that small middle-aged women are not generally a threat to large men in their twenties?

It’s all so Platonic. Never mind the bodies, we’re talking about the souls here. It doesn’t matter that Upton is young and huge and male, because in his mind he’s a tiny delicate girl, an Audrey Hepburn if you like, and Peggie is a looming terrifying monstrous harridan, Margaret Hamilton riding a broomstick. Physical reality is nothing, imagination is everything. Punishment, on the other hand, is very concrete and real.

She also walked him to his car, explaining that although any threat was “unlikely,” it felt like the right thing to do. When pressed later about whether this meant she believed Upton was at risk, Pitt said no—it was simply kindness.

What about Sandy Peggie? Why did it not cross her mind to wonder how she was doing after this encounter? Why did she not worry about Sandy Peggie’s feelings in the wake of Upton’s intrusion?

What she did know, however, was that Dr Upton’s right to use the women’s changing room had already been affirmed by senior staff months earlier. Consultants had been told in autumn 2023 that DU—biologically male, in his 20s—was entitled to use the female CR. Yet no similar communication was ever issued to nurses, many of whom used the same space. Pitt admitted as much: “I don’t recall,” she said, when asked if anyone told them. The policy was clear, the institution said. But it remained a private understanding among senior medics—leaving women to discover its implications only when emotionally overwhelmed men arrived in their changing room.

There it is again. Every accommodation for the men; absolutely nothing for the women. It’s like a parody of the class system.

When barrister Charlotte Elves asked if Searle’s internal message to consultants—expressing support for Upton and condemning SP’s behaviour—was appropriate, Pitt hedged. The email wasn’t “specific,” she conceded, and “could be read” as taking sides. But her broader defence was that senior staff were simply trying to make Upton feel safe. Elves pressed harder. Given Upton’s height (over six feet), age, and physical stature compared to the much smaller SP, was it credible to suggest he’d been under threat? Pitt resisted the framing. Upton hadn’t claimed physical danger, she said—just that he was deeply upset.

Ok. Let’s put it this way. Suppose Upton had actually raped a woman that night. Suppose Pitt encountered him later sobbing about his victim’s reaction to being raped. Would she even then have all the sympathy for him and none for her? Because that’s the logic here.

What the tribunal heard was not a story of safety protocols or consistent policy. It was a lesson in which emotions get urgency, which bodies get accommodation, and whose discomfort is quietly absorbed without question.

Goddam right.

It just gets worse and worse.

Good old Esther, Louise and Lauren are aware, so that’s nice.

Poor darling fragile “Beth” was approached by this peon of a nurse in the changing room for female nurses simply because he’s neither a nurse nor female! Can you believe it?! Will the working class never learn to stay in its place? Will women never learn to obey?? We women must join hands to shun and punish this dreadful upstart of a female nurse who dared to tell a staring male doctor to get out! And she did it in a very aggressive and confrontational manner, too, instead of tugging on her forelock and apologizing and making her voice soft and tiny and curtsying five or ten times.

Beth is understandably shaken and distressed. Poor Beth! Poor poor darling wee Beth who is much taller and much bulkier than Sandie, and a doctor as opposed to a nurse, and posh as opposed to working class – so you see obviously we are on poor Beth’s side and simply cannot wait to throw this impertinent nurse woman to the wolves.

What a horrific bunch of people.

For Women Scotland back in February:

Imagine, if you will, a man called Pete. Pete is a manly-man, tall, with a beard and well-developed muscles. He’s also not real – or at least there may be many such men called Pete in the world, but the Pete who became a talking point in the Sandie Peggie tribunal this week is an invention of Naomi Cunningham, the barrister acting for Ms Peggie. Pete, Ms Cunningham suggested, enters the female changing rooms where a woman stands in her bra: he fails to leave; he shuts the door and walks into the room; he starts to undress. At what stage is a woman allowed to feel uncomfortable or scared? Well, according to the Doctor who was, by his own testimony, distressed, upset, and scared of an encounter with a “hostile” and “aggressive” (his words) nurse, the response of the unclothed woman should depend on the state of Pete’s mind. After all, the fictitious Pete claimed to identify as a woman and no-one, least of all mere actual women, should be permitted to question his sincerity…

Without knowing Pete’s intention, Dr Upton said, we couldn’t judge his conduct in walking into the ladies and starting to strip, “I don’t consider it to be inherently menacing or sexual”, it might provoke “tricky conversations” about how we view gender and a “lack of willingness in a transphobic society to explore gender identity”, but ultimately Pete deserves to be treated with respect. In other words, suck it up, women!

Ah yes, he doesn’t consider it inherently menacing or sexual, so people who do are just wrong, and transphobic besides.

For Upton, a woman’s unwillingness to be in a vulnerable state with a strange man is not dependent on her fears but her bigotry. She may only be be 5’6” to his 6ft, he may be a fit young man of 28 to her 50 years, he may have the advantage of class and connections, but in his telling, she represents the oppressor class. He was scared and shaking at being alone with a termagant: “I’ve never been spoken to like that in my life!”, he said on more than one occasion…

That would explain a lot. Can you say “long overdue”?