It was the day five angels of the North brought their fight for a female-only changing room to Westminster.
And Health Secretary Wes Streeting gave them not the fleeting meeting they anticipated but nearly an hour to offer them some support – for the Darlington nurses have become impossible to ignore. ‘Millions of women stand with them,’ noted J. K. Rowling.
When their union was reluctant to lend its support, they formed their own, the Darlington Nursing Union. This pioneering zeal has brought comparison with the Ford women who fought for equal pay in the late Sixties, their story turned into the film Made in Dagenham.
It is easy to imagine the Darlington Five – Lisa Lockey, Bethany Hutchison, Annice Grundy, Tracey Hooper and Joanne Bradbury –attracting TV and cinema interest.
They insist transgender policies are putting women at risk and are suing their NHS trust for allowing a male-born colleague, Rose, to use the women-only changing room at Darlington Memorial Hospital.
Darlington Nurses who are protesting over the shared changing room facilities at their hospita
Bethany Hutchison, Lisa Lockey, Tracey Hooper and Annice Grundy delivered a petition to Downing Street this week
Health Secretary Wes Streeting gave them not the fleeting meeting they anticipated but nearly an hour to offer them some support
The nurses claimed Rose stared at their breasts as they were getting undressed and lingered too long in the changing room. One nurse had a panic attack after Rose repeatedly asked when they were alone, ‘Are you getting changed yet?’
Rose has male genitalia and is said to have told colleagues she is trying to get her girlfriend pregnant.
When the nurses showed Mr Streeting a picture of Rose at their meeting on Thursday, he raised his eyebrows.
Aside from long blond hair, Rose looks male. The nurses say she was advised by HR at the hospital to try to look more feminine by shaving and using lipstick.
When the nurses protested to the hospital about feeling intimidated, they were allegedly told to ‘get educated’ and change their mindset.
They handed in a petition at 10 Downing Street calling on party leaders to ‘stand up for women’.
The group say transgender policies are putting women at risk and are suing their NHS trust for allowing a male-born colleague, Rose, to use the women-only changing room at Darlington Memorial Hospital
Annice Grundy pictured handing over the petition to No.10 on October 24
Darlington Nurses who are protesting over the shared changing room facilities at their hospital
JK Rowling has said millions of people support the group of nurses
And their meeting with Mr Streeting was prompted by his social media post saying: ‘I support the nurses and I’m horrified that they’ve had to resort to legal action.’
The nurses said he wants an outcome ‘not everyone will love but people can live with’. They added he said: ‘Single sex spaces matter.’
They said he ‘seemed to agree’ that sex is biological – and they urged him to reflect that in the day-to-day running of the NHS.
On this he promised to talk to Government colleagues ‘about the difference between sex and gender identity’, acknowledging it was a thorny debate, with no consensus.