A doctor who was born a man has insisted she is ‘biologically female’ and there is ‘no agreed definition of biological sex’.
Dr Beth Upton, who started transitioning three years ago, also told a tribunal that she felt entitled to access female changing facilities because ‘I think I’m a woman’.
Nurse Sandie Peggie, who has worked at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy for 30 years, took Fife health board and Dr Upton to tribunal following an incident on Christmas Eve 2023.
After being suspended over an allegation of bullying and harassment, she lodged a complaint of harassment regarding three incidents when they shared a changing room.
Yesterday at the hearing in Dundee, Dr Upton rejected claims that she tried to assert dominance over Mrs Peggie after she objected to her use of the facility in the Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital.
Mrs Peggie’s lawyer compared Dr Upton’s ‘demand’ to be seen as a woman as akin to the policing of language in George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Dr Upton concealed their identity for the first two days of attending the hearing, but yesterday arrived with their face uncovered, alongside supporters and lawyer Jane Russell KC.
Dr Beth Upton, who was born a man, told the hearing she is a biological woman
Sandie Peggie took Fife health board and Dr Upton to tribunal following an incident on Christmas Eve 2023
Amid the day long cross-examination by Mrs Peggie’s lawyer Naomi Cunningham, Dr Upton repeatedly said she was not a man.
And Dr Upton told Ms Cunningham: ‘I am biologically female.’
The medic, who said the terms biological male and female had ‘no defined and agreed meaning in science’, told the tribunal: ‘Biological sex is a nebulous term and it doesn’t really mean anything, because nobody can accurately or usefully define biological sex because pretty much every human I’m aware of is at least in part biological and many of them have a sex characteristic.’
Dr Upton, who has worked for NHS Fife since August 2023, claimed gender is a ‘rough binary’.
The tribunal was told by Dr Upton: ‘I am quite aware of the impacts and implications of somebody’s biological makeup, and as a trans person I’m quite aware of the implications of someone’s biological makeup.
‘There are very few people who don’t think understanding some aspect of somebody’s biology is important in some situation, but there is no agreed definition of biological sex.
‘It’s a nebulous dog whistle.’
The tribunal has been told of thee times Mrs Peggie encountered Dr Upton in the female changing room in 2023, and said she had been left ‘embarrassed and intimidated’.
The first two occasions saw her wait in the corridor, but the third time on Christmas Eve 2023 ended with her challenging Dr Upton on the use of the female-only room.
The exact nature of what happened in the room is disputed – but shortly after Mrs Peggie was suspended from by NHS Fife bosses following a complaint from Dr Upton.
Dr Upton denied Ms Cunningham’s suggestion that the Christmas Eve encounter ‘ended at a time of your choosing once you’re satisfied you have asserted your dominance over her’.
Dr Upton arrives at the hearing with supporters
The medic said: ‘I disagree with that completely. I don’t think there’s any attempt to assert any sort of dominance – I don’t seek to assert dominance over anyone in this context.
‘It’s a gross mischaracterisation of what I’m trying to do. What I’m trying to do is de-escalate the situation.
‘And you can tell I’ve been trying to de-escalate the situation because I’ve repeatedly tried to de-escalate it throughout and the claimant [Mrs Peggie] has continued with pejorative and aggressive questioning.’
Dr Upton was given permission to use the female changing room by senior staff.
Ms Cunningham said that ‘insisting that Sandie and her colleagues’ accept Dr Upton used the women’s changing room without showing ‘any signs of discomfort’ was asking them to ‘pretend to believe something which you and they both know is false’.
But Dr Upton rejected this, saying: ‘I don’t think that’s false, I think that’s true.
‘I think I’m a woman. I think you will find that many of my colleagues would agree with me.’
Ms Cunningham referred to the last few pages in Nineteen Eighty-Four when the ‘torturer holds up four fingers and forces Winston Smith, the central character, to say that he can see five’.
She said: ‘The ultimate submission and humiliation that is demanded of Winston is that he affirmed something that both he and his torturer know to be false.
‘I want to suggest to you that your demand of Sandie was of the same sort.. You were demanding that she should submit to you by pretending to think that you’re a woman even though you both know that’s false.’
Ms Russell objected to the question.
The tribunal continues.
