Trans activists say they have reported the Scottish Daily Express to police for “harassment” after the newspaper referred to Dr Beth Upton as a man in its coverage of an employment tribunal brought by nurse Sandie Peggie. Here’s an excerpt:
The veteran nurse is suing NHS Fife and Dr Upton in a landmark case after being suspended for objecting to his presence in the female changing rooms at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy on Christmas Eve, 2023.
The medic is biologically male and does not have a gender recognition certificate to legally change gender. The judge in the case has previously ruled that he can be called a man, although he acknowledged it would be a “courtesy” to use his preferred pronouns.
However, Ms Peggie and her legal team have referred to Dr Upton as a man throughout the hearings, while NHS Fife’s lawyers have used female pronouns. Quite apart from any reasons of accuracy and gender critical feminism, this can make reports difficult to follow for readers.
On X, formerly Twitter, the SEEN Police Official Open Public Network – a collective account set up to “challenge hate” and said to be a “malign impersonator” of Sex Equality and Equity Network – said it had reported the Scottish Daily Express to Police Scotland.
It said: “We have submitted a second report to Police Scotland of targeted harassment of Dr Beth Upton by the Scottish Daily Express editor, Ben Borland. This links to our first report, which Police Scotland are currently REFUSING to deal with. In this new incident, Borland explains… his reasons for intentional and gratuitous misgendering and deadnaming, are ‘simply stating a fact’ and other well-worn ‘gender critical’ tropes. Yet, he is fully aware he is causing harassment and distress. This is going to end badly for @PoliceScotland if they avoid dealing with this.
They are already in breach of the Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty. We are ready to apply for judicial review if this continues any longer. We will not allow Police Scotland to go on excluding the trans section of the public from the protection of a police service – which is effectively what they are doing, and have been doing since their infamous cowardice with JK Rowling. They are fobbing us off and know they are wrong. FAFO Police Scotland. FAFO.”
FAFO is Gen X slang, standing for ‘F*** Around Find Out’, which some might argue gives the comment a somewhat menacing and even threatening tone.
Worth reading in full.
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