The struggle for biological reality in the NHS

News

Is the tide turning on gender ideology? That’s what many have been saying since the publication of the landmark Cass review in April, which condemned medical interventions like puberty blockers as lacking in evidence.

But has the NHS got the memo? Stories continue to surface of gender ideology and its harmful consequences being pushed on patients and staff.

Last week, we learned of a group of 26 nurses who are launching legal action against an NHS Trust for sexual harassment because of the “intimidating and upsetting” behaviour of a transgender colleague in the female changing rooms.

The nurses at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust wrote to the workforce director in March complaining that the colleague had “taken a keen interest” in them while they were getting changed and had behaved in unsettling ways, according to the Nursing Times.

But in a meeting organised by the hospital’s Head of HR, the nurses were told that they needed to “broaden their mindset”, “be more inclusive” and “be educated” and “attend training”, according to the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting them.

Why should women have to “broaden their mindset” and accept the violation of their privacy? Whatever this is, it isn’t progress.

It also came to light last week that staff at another NHS Trust, Lewisham and Greenwich, were told they must accept patients’ choice of pronouns and should not confront, for example, men who use female changing rooms, even if they aren’t dressed like women.

The guidance, which came into effect in February last year, was condemned by Victoria Atkins, the Health Secretary, who said NHS staff must be able to carry out their duties without “tiptoeing around trans guidance”.

Ms Atkins also stressed the importance for health and clinical reasons of being clear about a person’s biological sex and communicating about it in a comprehensible way.

These troubling stories originate in events pre-dating the Cass review, so it can be hoped that things will be different in future. But they show how deeply the rot of gender ideology has penetrated our medical institutions, and how much work there is to do to root it out.

At C4M we know that when the real definition of marriage is abandoned people can soon lose sight of even basic biological truths about the differences between men and women. Isn’t it time the NHS stopped pushing harmful ideology and stuck to the facts?