Bid to compel preferred pronoun use rejected in win for common sense

A judge has ruled that a woman who has taken a male-bodied transgender person to court for sexual harassment should not be compelled to use his preferred female pronouns.

An employment tribunal is underway between nurse Sandie Peggie, and Dr Upton with NHS Fife. The nurse claimed she was forced to get changed in front of the biologically male doctor, who used the female changing rooms as he identified as a woman.  She was then suspended after raising a complaint.

The NHS requested the judge to impose an order on Peggie to prevent her from referring to Dr Upton as a man, calling it unlawful harassment. They previously tried unsuccessfully to hold the case in secret and restrict press coverage.

Compelled speech

Judge Kemp, who ruled on the case, allowed each side to “be in a position to argue the case in the manner that they see fit”, but warned that pronoun use could be classed as harassment if used “gratuitously and offensively on a repeated basis”.

The judge acknowledged that male pronouns are “liable to be painful and distressing” to Dr Upton, and called on Peggie’s representative to reflect on whether using them would be “necessary or appropriate”.

Lawyer and former SNP MP Joanna Cherry criticised NHS Fife for wasting public money, emphasising that “we don’t have compelled speech in Scotland”.

‘Clear and truthful’ evidence

Peggie’s lawyer Margaret Gribbon asserted: “the claimant’s case is that Dr Upton should not be allowed to use the women’s changing room, because he is a man.

“It is impossible to put that case clearly and forcefully while referring to the man in question as ‘she’ and paying lip-service to the fiction that he is a kind of woman. The whole point is that he is a man.”

Fiona McAnena, Director of Campaigns at women’s rights group Sex Matters, said NHS Fife has “tried to prevent Sandie giving her evidence clearly and truthfully,” but “this whole case is centred on the fact that [Dr Upton] is a male who uses a female changing room. The use of a female name does not make him female”.