by Janice Turner, The Times
In 2023, Sandie Peggie was working in A&E in Fife. Then a confrontation with a trans doctor in the female changing rooms catapulted her into the heated debate about single-sex spaces
One August morning in 2023, Sandie Peggie had just finished her night shift at the A&E department in Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, and needed to change out of her scrubs. As she entered the female locker rooms, she saw Dr Beth Upton sitting there, putting on shoes. Peggie froze: this was the first time she’d encountered the new doctor, a 6ft, trans-identifying male, in the women’s facilities, “and I did not want to strip down to my bra and pants in front of him”. Saying nothing, she walked back out and waited until Upton had left.
Later she messaged a colleague: “The trans doctor was in the middle of getting changed when I went in this morning.” Her friend responded with laughing emojis but Peggie replied, “OMG IT WAS NOT FUNNY… Don’t mind him/her but I would have been raging if he’d walked in on me half-naked.” Peggie went to see her nursing manager, Esther Davidson, explaining her embarrassment and discomfort, and she promised to look into it.
Two months later, Peggie was already stripped down to her bra and trousers when Upton walked in. Quickly replacing her top, she left the room and waited outside until the doctor had gone. Again she spoke to Davidson, who said she’d contacted the hospital’s diversity and equality officer, Isla Bumba, who’d informed her that trans employees were allowed to use facilities matching their gender identity. Couldn’t Sandie change in a toilet cubicle or another building?