Mick Hartley

The NHS trust at the centre of the Darlington nurses dispute would seem to have an agenda. From the Times:

A hospital trust at the centre of a row over transwomen sharing female changing rooms has come under fire for producing a Pride calendar celebrating “polyamory” and “pansexuality”.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is being sued by eight nurses who claim that a policy allowing transwomen to use single-sex changing rooms puts women at risk….

But a Pride calendar sent to staff has stirred further criticism of the trust over claims that bosses are more concerned with protecting LGBT rights than those of women.

The 36-page document, Pride Month 2025, begins with a graphic in which each day in June is dedicated to celebrating an LGBT theme. These include images of flags placed on different dates that represent a variety of “genders” and sexualities that people can identify as.

Among these are flags for the polyamorous — defined in the booklet as “a relationship style in which more than two people engage in intimate, consensual relationship” — and the pansexual, described as individuals “attracted to all types of people” regardless of “gender or sexual orientation”.

Other flags represent those who identify as asexual, explained as people who “may experience little sexual attraction or none at all”….

Elsewhere the document advises staff advice on providing “safe spaces” for LGBTQ+ people.

There's someone high up at the Durham and Darlington trust that seems to be pushing this, and no one dares speak up – apart from the Darlington nurses.

Some staff at the hospital say the exercise is “divisive”, particularly in the light of the case of the eight Darlington nurses, strengthened by the recent Supreme Court ruling that, under equality law, women and men are defined by biological sex.

One female hospital employee said: “Why should an individual’s sexuality or kinks be not only brought into the workplace but actively promoted and forced on staff? Following the Supreme Court ruling, it is incredibly insensitive and hostile to be trying to ‘educate’ staff on these issues.

“This exposes that County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has an extreme agenda and are keen to be seen as ‘inclusive’ while continuing to exclude women and ignoring their rights to basic dignity.”

Further concerns have been raised over the booklet’s directing staff towards Mermaids, a charity for trans youth, as one of the 11 “LGBT focused charities” it lists.

Hmm. Someone high up with a transed child, perhaps.

Shelley Charlesworth of Transgender Trend, a parent-led group that campaigns to raise awareness of the sharp rise in children identifying as trans, said: “No part of the NHS should be endorsing Mermaids, a charity which was opposed to the ban by the NHS on puberty blockers and which has a history of controversies in its dealing with children.”