The nurse at the centre of the tribunal which blew open the debate on the rights of trans people to access single-sex spaces has said that men who believe they are women are “delusional.”
In her first interview since her tribunal against NHS Fife came to a close, Sandie Peggie said her life had been turned “upside down” by the row, but maintained she was not a “bigot.”
Ms Peggie, who worked at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, launched her legal action claiming belief discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation after being dismissed for complaining about sharing a changing room with Dr Beth Upton on Christmas Eve.
The nurse said that she does not want to “get personal” with those involved, but told the Daily Mail: “What I will say is that I think all biological men who think they can just say they are women are delusional.”
The tribunal ruled that the health board harassed her by failing to revoke Dr Upton’s permission to use the female changing facilities until different rota arrangements were in place at the emergency department at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
The ruling also found that NHS Fife had taken an “unreasonable length of time” to investigate patient safety claims made against Ms Peggie, including allegations she left a patient in a resuscitation unit because of Dr Upton’s presence.
Employment Judge Sandy Kemp also said that Ms Peggie was harassed by the health board by giving an instruction to her not to discuss the case in July.
However, the tribunal found that the claim of direct and indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 did not succeed.
Ms Peggie also lost her victimisation claim against the health board, while the ruling stated the claim against Dr Upton also failed.
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The nurse said she remains angry at being sidelined by NHS Fife and is upset at the speed at which blame was laid at her feet.
“There were two sides in this dispute and,” she said, “they sided with him. I was thrown under the bus because I wouldn’t allow myself to be brainwashed into agreeing that a man was a woman just because he said he was one.”
However, Ms Peggie said that she believed the row could have been avoided if the health board had shown common sense from the outset.
She said: “It’s complete madness, lunacy. I think it’s disgusting. There has been no common sense. I still don’t understand why this could not have been sorted earlier.
“There were other places [in the hospital] he could have changed. There are toilet cubicles elsewhere that are huge. He could have been asked to use one of those.”
Ms Peggie, said she had lost friends during the drawn-out legal process and feels betrayed by upper management at NHS Fife.
“I had tried to stand up for myself and for other women,” she said. “And they tried to stamp me down. They tried to destroy me.”
“I feel let down – by managers, senior people, board members I’ve never even met. There has been no backing whatsoever. I’ve lost friends over this. They [her bosses] tried to destroy me. They went digging for dirt in my life. I was turned into a pariah.
“In the middle of all this, I went to a funeral for one of our ambulance drivers and later discovered my supervisor was going round telling people she didn’t know how I had the brass neck to be there. I’m quite a strong person, I think, but that cut me.”
She adds: “My family have been supportive. They are the ones who have seen me cry, but I feel bad that I have put them through so much. And I still don’t know why I’m getting called a bigot because I don’t believe I am one.”
