I felt that having to share the female-only changing room with a man was a kind of sexual harassment, but I was the one who was treated like an abuser.
I was a nurse working in A&E on night shifts. When I found out that a male colleague had been given permission to use the women’s changing room because he identified as a woman, I just knew instinctively that it wasn’t right that women were expected to undress in front of men. When I complained, I was told by my employer to change my clothes in the toilets. They treated me like I was a bully. They suspended me, taking my nursing badges and locking me out of my emails. I was banned from even coming near the building. I asked what would happen if a family member was sick and I had to bring them in. They said I would need to get permission to enter the hospital.
They launched an investigation into my behaviour, including claims I had committed gross misconduct during my duties. The whole thing was dragged out for so long that it became clear to me that it was part of my punishment. I decided to launch a claim in the employment tribunal because I felt that having to share the female-only changing room was a kind of sexual harassment, but I also that the way I was treated by my employer was not right. The tribunal was very difficult, and it showed just how ideologically captured my employer is; some of their representatives claimed that it’s impossible to know who is a woman and who is a man. How can someone working in healthcare make a claim like that?
My union did nothing to help me. I got called all kinds of nasty names, like bigot and transphobe. I lost a lot of friends. But the judge ultimately ruled that my employer had indeed harassed me. And I feel vindicated by the Supreme Court ruling: it shows I was completely in the right to claim that female changing rooms are for women only.
I loved my job and I miss it. I had been a nurse for 30 years. I’m not a campaigner, and I never knew this was an issue until a man started using my changing room. I’m glad the judge agreed that I had been harassed, but I don’t think the judgment went far enough so I’m going to keep fighting. This mistreatment of women ends here.