What NHS staff said at a “hate incident” tribunal over “trans” changing rooms beggars belief

Junior doctor Teddy “Beth” Upton is a man who believes he has the right to use women’s changing rooms. After an exchange with a nurse while he was using a female changing room, he filed a complaint of a “hate incident” with NHS Fife.

Following her suspension, the nurse brought a case against NHS Fife and Upton for unlawful treatment.  Comments from NHS staff who were called as witnesses are jaw-dropping – they don’t know how to identify who is a man and who is a woman, even though their job relies on them knowing the difference. 

Also, look out for a misogynistic remark from the man, Upton, who claims to be a woman.

The employment tribunal hearing in the case of Sandie Peggie v NHS Fife and Dr. Beth Upton continues, with the hearing resuming on 16 July 2025 after a break.

Teddy Upton is a man who wants to be a woman; to this end, he began “transitioning” in January 2022 and has given himself the name “Beth.”  He works as a junior doctor in the A&E department at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. According to reports, there is “evidence that Dr. Upton [is] a known troublemaker and a bully.”

Peggie is an A&E nurse who has worked at NHS Fife for more than 30 years.

According to The Herald, the dispute between Upton and Peggie arose from an incident in the female changing room on Christmas Eve 2023. Following the confrontation, Upton submitted a formal complaint against Peggie, describing the encounter as a “hate incident” and alleging bullying and a hostile work environment. According to Upton, the exchange left him feeling “distressed” and “afraid.”

Upton went on to make spurious claims when NHS Fife investigated his complaint.  The Herald explained:

As part of the investigation into the complaint, Upton made several serious allegations against Ms. Peggie, including claims that raised “clear fitness to practice questions.”

One of the most significant accusations was that Ms. Peggie had “walked out of a resuscitation unit when Dr. Upton entered, leaving a patient unseen” …  Another allegation involved the “missing patient incident” on 18 December 2023, where a patient was triaged but left the hospital without being seen. Dr. Upton claimed that Ms. Peggie had “not acknowledged [his] presence” during the event, implying professional negligence.

However, despite the severity of these patient safety concerns, Dr. Upton did not report them immediately, raising questions about the timing and motivation behind the claims.

Who is Dr. Beth Upton, the doctor at centre of NHS tribunal row? The Herald, 16 July 2025

As a consequence of Upton’s complaints, Peggie was suspended from her role in January 2024.  Claiming her treatment was unlawful under the 2010 Equality Act, she has brought a case against the health board and Upton for sexual harassment, belief discrimination and victimisation.

In February 2025, the tribunal sat for 10 days to hear evidence.  It resumed on 16 July 2025 with witnesses being interviewed over a further 10 days.  So far, the bill for the NHS defending itself and Upton has cost the taxpayer £220,500.

It must be recalled that in April, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the definition of a “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex.”  So, NHS Fife and Upton have acted unlawfully.

You can find out more about the case by reading the following:

• Sandie Peggie v NHS Fife and Beth Upton, Sex Matters, 21 July 2025
• NHS Fife tries to silence nurse – Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr. Beth Upton, Mums Net, 23 July 2025
• Key points in Sandie Peggie v NHS Fife as lawyer row erupts, The Herald, 24 July 2025
• Sandie Peggie v Beth Upton/NHS Fife RECAP: Latest from NHS Fife trans changing room employment tribunal, The Scotsman live blog, 24 July 2025

On the eve of the tribunal resuming, on 15 July 2025, Peggie was cleared of gross misconduct by NHS Fife following the disciplinary hearings, which began 18 months earlier.

On resuming, the tribunal has been examining evidence from various witnesses, including NHS Fife staff and Upton’s line managers.  Boswell Today posted on his/her Twitter (now X) profile some of the “jaw-dropping” remarks made by NHS staff during the tribunal.

We have copied Boswell Today’s Twitter thread below.  But first, an update on the case.

Day 7 | PM Session | Peggie v NHS Fife & Dr Upton

“Words as Violence – But Whose?”: Peggie Tribunal Exposes the Hypocrisy of NHS Fife’s Language Doctrine

By Boswell Today, 24 July 2025

Day 7 of the Peggie tribunal didn’t just put NHS Fife’s policies on trial – it put its vocabulary under cross-examination. For months, the board has cast Sandie Peggie’s use of male pronouns for Dr. Upton as an act of symbolic violence: the verbal equivalent of exclusion, even aggression. But this afternoon’s testimony exposed the hypocrisy beneath that charge – and asked a harder question: if misnaming someone is a harm, why did NHS staff do it themselves?

Angela Glancy, the lead investigator into Peggie’s conduct, was back in the witness box. Calm and methodical, Naomi Cunningham led her through the institutional theatre of pronoun discipline. “You weren’t confused,” she asked, after Glancy admitted to slipping into male pronouns when Cunningham used them in questioning. “No,” Glancy replied. She simply reverted to her trained pattern. The spell of compelled speech, it turned out, could be broken with a single unapproved utterance.

That moment, measured and factual, was enough to tie opposing counsel Jane Russell in procedural knots. She objected to the use of “exercised” as too loaded, the pronouns as too confusing, the tone as unprofessional. Yet all the while, her argument rested on a belief system that demanded linguistic compliance from Peggie, but showed little concern for the shifting syntax of its own witnesses. Her discomfort, it seemed, was not with incivility, but with clarity.

It was Glancy’s agreement with a hypothetical that set the real terms of the debate. Cunningham posited a man named Pete – broad, masculine, bearded – entering the women’s changing room as Peggie undressed. Would Peggie be right to object? “Yes,” said Glancy. But Dr. Upton, biologically male, had walked into the same room. What made one situation inappropriate and the other inviolable? The answer lay not in appearances or facts – but in words. Pete said nothing. Dr. Upton said, “I’m a woman.” That, apparently, changed everything.

Then came Anne Hamilton, the HR adviser who supported the investigation. Under pressure, Hamilton revealed that the original draft of the report on Peggie referred to Upton using “they/them” – and, in places, “he/him.” Only in later versions were these replaced with “she/her.” Peggie, meanwhile, stood accused of misgendering. Cunningham didn’t need to editorialise. The tribunal could see it plainly: NHS Fife had disciplined a woman for saying what the board itself had once written.

Even more striking was the revelation that Upton had met privately with the investigator, Angela Glancy, to “adjust” the notes from their interview – without any record, without a second party present, without transparency. Peggie was never offered the same. Hamilton tried to frame it as policy-compliant, then admitted it was “not ideal.” The tribunal heard the subtext: editing the record was allowed, as long as the edits affirmed the right narrative.

Throughout, the evidence pointed to an unstated rule: words only wound when spoken by unbelievers. Peggie’s language, rooted in sex-based reality, was framed as hostility. Upton’s assertions – about identity, entitlement, and access – were treated not only as valid but as sacred. The board’s own shifting vocabulary became a litmus test: speak the right words and you were protected; speak the wrong ones and you became a disciplinary target.

By the end of the session, the tribunal was no longer hearing about pronouns as a linguistic preference. It was seeing them as a mechanism of control. Peggie’s “he” was not a slip, nor a slur – it was a refusal to participate in a belief system she did not share. And for that refusal, she faced what can only be described as institutional reprisal. Meanwhile, the very agents of that reprisal – managers, investigators, HR staff – used the same “misgendering” language themselves, without consequence, until it became administratively inconvenient.

If this afternoon proved anything, it’s that the real violence wasn’t Peggie’s use of male pronouns. It was the system’s attempt to dictate what words she was allowed to say – and to punish her for saying what was once, and still is, undeniably true.

10 Jaw-Dropping Things Said in Evidence at the Peggie v NHS Fife and Dr. Upton Tribunal

By Boswell Today, 23 July 2025

1. “I don’t know what sex I am – I’ve never had my chromosomes tested.”—Isla Bumba, Equality Lead, NHS Fife.  This was her reply when asked about her own sex in a tribunal about single-sex spaces.

2. “Being called a man is derogatory.”—Dr. Teddy Upton, the male A&E doctor who changed in the women’s room.  This was part of the “hate incident” report filed against nurse Sandie Peggie.

3. “You can’t tell if someone is a man just by looking.”—Esther Davidson, Nurse Manager. Asked how women could know who was in their changing room: “You can’t. They might pass.”

4. “If he says he’s a woman, he’s a woman. That’s the rule.”—Isla Bumba. There was no trans policy at NHS Fife. But this was the de facto rule.

5. “We didn’t ask if any women had trauma or religious objections.”—Bumba and Davidson, separately. No consideration was given to female staff with past sexual assault or protected religious beliefs.

6. “Trans women are less of a threat than men – except Isla Bryson.”—Bumba, naming a convicted rapist who was placed in a women’s prison. This was the only example she gave of risk.

7. “Women haven’t lost anything … unless you believe in biological sex.”—Bumba again. She insisted that letting male staff into women’s changing rooms wasn’t a problem unless you notice the sex difference.

8. “Periods aren’t sexual, so boys mocking them isn’t either.”—Dr. Teddy Upton. This was his response to questions about whether menstruation-related taunts were sexually harassing.

9. “It’s not that black and white.”—Gillian Malone, Head of Nursing. Asked if letting a male into the women’s changing room meant female staff no longer had a single-sex space.

10. “Biological sex is just a belief.”—Jane Russell KC, counsel for NHS Fife. She repeatedly objected to witnesses calling Dr. Teddy Upton “a man,” arguing that was merely a belief – not a fact.

And yet it was Sandie Peggie – an experienced A&E nurse – who was suspended for wanting a female-only space to change her clothes. She said no. They called her “misbehaving.” They investigated her for a “hate incident.” They made her the problem.

This is not just one rogue employer. NHS Scotland had no single-sex safeguarding process for staff. Managers enforced inclusion by suppressing dissent – not by balancing rights.  The consequence? If you say “he’s a man,” you go.

Every one of these quotes was said under oath, and they go to the heart of this case:

• Sex
• Belief
• Inclusion by coercion
• Women erased, one by one

The final ruling hasn’t yet been handed down. But the evidence is already public.

If this shocked you, please follow the hearing.  Tribunal Tweets is reporting it live.  Sex-based rights are on trial.  The Sandie Peggie case isn’t fringe. It’s the future – unless we make it stop.

Featured image: Nurse Sandie Peggie is arguing that having to change next to the male medic broke the Equality Act (left).  Source: Daily Mail. Dr. Teddy “Beth” Upton arriving at the tribunal in February (right).  Source: Sky News