Boy, it has been a long road for these girls, and it's kind of ironic that their cases against Britain's National Health Service (NHS) are finally decided the same week that American female athletes take the issue of transgenders competeing in their sports to our Supreme Court.
The 'Darlington' in their nickname came from the hospital they all worked at - Darlington Memorial Hospital, an 'acute' NHS facility in southern County Durham, England.
It all started what must seem like a million years ago to these girls, who all enjoyed their jobs at the hospital until they were forced to share the ladies changing room with a biological male nurse who'd decided his name was 'Rose.'
...At the hospital 20 minutes down the road, where these women all work as nurses, there also works an operating theatre nurse named Rose. Like all the other nurses in the hospital, Rose is required to change daily, when she gets to work, into suitable medical attire: in Rose’s case, theatre scrubs. As with all the other nurses who work at the hospital, Rose is given space to do this, in her case, in the women’s changing room.
The only problem is, Rose was born a man and retains male genitalia. And the four women I am meeting today are not happy about Rose’s presence in their changing room. Not only does it make them and other colleagues feel uncomfortable and vulnerable, but they claim it puts them at risk. The trust has said that, because Rose identifies as a woman, Rose is free to use the female changing rooms. The nurses believe they have no choice but to take a stand. “I don’t want it on my head,” says Hutchison. “I don’t want to wake up one day and see that somebody’s accessed the changing room and somebody has been abused, violated, raped, whatever. I don’t want to be that person who goes ‘I could have done something’.”
After months of uncomfortable moments and growing resentment, 26 of the nurses wrote a letter in April of 2024 to the trust that manages the hospital, asking them to please address the situation, laying out their very reasonable complaints and detailing 'Rose's' intolerable behavior..
... In April this year, the women wrote a letter to the trust, signed by 26 nurses. The letter explained that female staff felt they were being not only humiliated and degraded by Rose’s presence, but that for many – including nurses who had previously experienced sexual abuse, and those from overseas, where undressing in front of men was not the cultural norm – it also felt discriminatory. One nurse has claimed that she had a panic attack after repeatedly being asked by Rose while alone with her in the changing room, “Are you getting changed yet?” The situation, they wrote, was “intolerable”.
It went as badly as you might imagine. The nurses were informed that the hospital was squarely behind the man in their bathroom, they needed to be educated, and that their changing room was an 'inclusive' place, although no one had asked them about it.
So suck it up, already.
Later that month, the ward manager was summoned to an impromptu meeting, where she was told that the trust “supports Rose 150 per cent” and that the nurses needed to “broaden their mindset”, be “more inclusive”, “be educated”, and be given training. “And they actually said ‘Oh, Rose is very into educating people about this topic’,” claims Hutchison. “I don’t need educating. I’ve got two master’s [degrees] and a degree.”
A further meeting between HR and the nurses criticised the letter as an inappropriate way of raising concerns or complaints. A sign appeared on the changing room door complete with rainbow banding. “Inclusive changing space” it declared. “Do not remove this sign.” It has subsequently been taken down.
The five most vocal nurses, who were also in ward management positions, received letters threatening disciplinary actions and had their management office cleared out in order to make the tiny space a changing room for anyone who felt 'uncomfortable' taking their clothes off in front of the fully intact fellow in the regular girls' room.
The implication was that the complainers could take themselves to the tiny closet to swap out their clothes. No one would dare suggest the man do it.
...“It’s a tiny cupboard,” snorts Hutchison. “They’ve now also given us a cubicle in the patient discharge room – but that’s where we discharge patients, have huddles with other nurses, meet relatives. “You wouldn’t feel comfortable in there if there was a roomful of people [in the discharge room],” says Grundy. As Lockey, 51, puts it, come the end of shift, it’s “boobs and bums everywhere” in the changing room. “I don’t like my body particularly – I don’t like getting changed even in front of other women let alone a man,” she adds. Was there ever any suggestion that Rose might be asked to use a temporary changing room? “No, never,” they all chorus.
That was enough for the nurses. Eight of them brought a claim against Darlington NHS Trust...
...The nurses have filed the claim against the trust on the grounds of sexual harassment, discrimination, victimisation and breaches of the right to a private life, under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The tribunal has heard that nurses started to raise concerns about Henderson using the changing rooms in the summer of 2023.
...and got the most amazing response from the NHS boss at the beginning of the inquiry this October, after an employment tribunal was held.
WHY, HE'S JUST A LARGE WOMAN
It turns out 'Rose' was no bearded lady.
...A transgender nurse who used a hospital’s female changing room was no different than a larger woman, an NHS boss has suggested.
Eight nurses are bringing a claim against the NHS after Rose Henderson, who was born male but identifies as a woman, was allowed to use the female changing facilities at Darlington Memorial Hospital.
An employment tribunal in Newcastle has previously heard allegations that Henderson, who was bearded, intimidated female colleagues and repeatedly asked one if she was going to get changed.
However, Andrew Thacker, of the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, said during a hearing on Tuesday that Henderson had not acted in a “threatening” way.
This, by the way, is the winsome 'Rose' they're all referring to.
will never not be wild that women had to go to court to prevent this man from watching them undress. pic.twitter.com/JPTpTqWxiK
— euan mccolm (@euanmccolm) January 16, 2026
WHY IS EVERYBODY ALWAYS PICKING ON ME?
Poor, helpless, innocent 'Rose' felt 'demonized,' his lawyer alleged, by the women who resented his ogling. The nurses felt victimized by a hostile and vindictive hospital management that was more worried about a man where he shouldn't be than the mental and physical well-being of the women who worked for them.
NHS bosses "penalised" female nurses complaining about a transgender woman using their changing room, an employment tribunal has been told.
Eight nurses are challenging a policy which allows the single-sex room at Darlington Memorial Hospital to be used by Rose Henderson, a biological male who identifies as a woman.
In closing submissions, the nurses' barrister said they had suffered indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation due to County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust's Transitioning In The Workplace policy.
The trust said the nurses had "demonised" Rose, who was referred to by first name during the tribunal, and the policy conformed with guidance and laws at the time.
Speaking to the BBC afterwards, the nurses said it had been "very stressful" but they had still gone to work as patients were "the most important".
The decision of the tribunal was handed down today, and the long-suffering women emerged victorious.
Women have the right not to undress in front of men at work.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 16, 2026
Twenty years ago, that sentence would have been a statement of such obviousness that people would have laughed at you for saying it aloud. Now it's a matter for celebration. Congratulations, you heroines 🎉😘👏 https://t.co/eDXtbv1Xfx
What an absolutely unnecessary waste of time, money, and frayed nerves for them to even have to go through this experience.
Nurses in Darlington were unlawfully discriminated against by their employers when they were forced to share female-only changing rooms with a man who identified as a woman, an Employment Tribunal has ruled.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust’s policy ‘Transitioning in the Workplace’ asserted that if female nurses were uncomfortable getting changed in front of a man, they should find alternative changing facilities.
But the Tribunal found that the policy ‘violated the dignity’ of the nurses by creating “a hostile, humiliating and degrading environment”, which was compounded by the Trust not taking seriously the nurses’ concerns about the policy.
So much the same as our colleges did to our female athletes here - forcing them into situations where they had to choose between their scholarships or changing and showering in front of a fully intact male. That's without even the blatant inequality of the competition itself.
I am so glad Woke is dying, even though it still seems to be a painful, slow death.
It is dying.
Darlington nurse and President of the Darlington Nursing Union, Bethany Hutchison, delivers compelling statement in response to today's landmark ruling
— Darlington Nursing Union (@DarlingtonUnion) January 16, 2026
https://t.co/eAznzCito5
NHS trust 'violated dignity' of nurses by allowing trans woman to use female changing room, tribunal… pic.twitter.com/SLv9gVenLA
In England, there is still more to do, as the trans gender ideology still has its claws in the legal fabric of the country.
The Darlington nurses and women across the country are now demanding that the Labour government take action to finalize a decision handed down by the British Courts almost a year ago.
The Darlington nurses have called for Labour to ban transgender women from female-only changing rooms following a landmark tribunal victory.
...He said allowing the colleagues to share changing facilities created a “hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment”.
The judgment has intensified pressure on Bridget Phillipson, the women and equalities minister, to bring in guidance that would ban transgender women from using female-only changing rooms.
Bethany Hutchison, president of the Darlington Nursing Union who led the claim against the trust, told The Telegraph: “It is very simple, Bridget Phillipson needs to publish the lawful EHRC guidance now. There has never been a valid reason or excuse for delay and after today’s ruling there definitely is not now.”
Ms Phillipson has faced repeated criticism for delaying the publication of guidance on single-sex spaces, despite receiving it from the equalities watchdog four months ago.
The new proposed code of practice would mean places such as hospital wards, gyms and leisure centres would be able to question transgender women over their use of single-sex services based on how they look, their behaviour or concerns raised by others, it has previously been reported.
...In October, the watchdog urged Ms Phillipson to speed up her approval, warning that some organisations were using old guidance, which is unlawful.
The 300-page document was drawn up by the EHRC following a Supreme Court ruling in April 2025 that sex under the Equality Act was defined by biological sex, not gender identity, and that laws against sex-based discrimination should apply only to biological women.
Labour, naturally, is in no hurry to upset their transgender and uber-progressive base any more than they need to, especially with them in such sad shape popularity-wise at the moment. Phillipson is going nowhere in keeping men out of women's spaces unless she's dragged by a tractor.
But this is a big day, and hopefully the march back to some sense of balance for the UK continues.
God knows they need all the help they can get.
