Colleen Hawkins

Sandie Peggie attacked Dr. Upton on Christmas Eve. (From the transcript by the tribunal) Shortly before midnight on 24 Christmas Eve 2023, Beth Upton was taking off her scrubs in the women’s changing room of Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy on the east coast of Scotland. Upton had just come off a 10-hour shift as a junior doctor in A&E. As she changed alongside two other women colleagues, Sandie Peggie, a nurse in Upton’s department, entered the room clearly stalking Upton. Peggy waited for the other women to leave the room and then waited outside of Upton's cubicle. Upton emerged from a toilet cubicle to find Peggie stalking her saying “I don’t think you should be here,” clearly not intimidated enough to create a scene, Peggie continued “I’m intimidated by you being in the women’s changing room, she said – because you’re a man.” Upton kindly stated “I’m sorry you feel intimidated by me, she said, but I’ve been told I’m allowed to change here.” After some additional insults by Peggie calling her a man repeatedly, Upton went to get her bag to try to walk away from the attack. Peggie continued to harass her. Peggie said, “What are your chromosomes?” Upton responded, “This isn’t the right time or place – with minutes to go before Christmas – to talk about this.” Peggie pressed harder saying, “It isn’t just me, she said: lots of people are intimidated by you, and they’re all talking about it behind your back. It’s just that only I have the guts to say it to your face because of my bad history with men.” Upton apologised for a third time, saying she sympathised with Peggie’s was not going to accept any peaceful statement and she continued her attack. “No, you don’t understand,” Peggie said. “If you sympathised, you wouldn’t be in this changing room.” For the fourth time, Upton apologised. Peggie wouldn’t let it go. “Women should be able to feel safe here,” Peggie went on. This is just like that person in prison – a reference to Isla Bryson, the trans woman who raped two women in Scotland prior to her transition, and was initially put in a women’s prison before being moved to a men’s facility.” upon the accusation that Upton was equivalent to being a rapist, Upton could have responded righteously in an angry tone but she refrained. For around five minutes, Peggie verbally assaulted Upton until Upton could escape the room. __________ TERFs attacking transgender people is happening across the UK and across the United States as the anti-trans movement is calling for confrontations. Almost every trans woman alive, counting into the millions, has had incidences like this of being attacked. __________ Continuing …. Upton began Christmas Day in the staff wellbeing room, sobbing to a senior colleague about her ordeal. The consultant walked with Upton to her car and she went home. Not long after the verbal attacks against Upton, Peggie filed a harassment claim. For anti-trans radicals funding Peggie's lawsuit, Peggie’s case would indicate whether April’s UK Supreme Court ruling could be used to exclude trans people from single-sex spaces through employment litigation. In early December, Judge Alexander Kemp dismissed her claim. The judge found that Upton was not a threat to Peggie’s safety – on the contrary, it was Peggie who had harassed Upton, waiting for her in the toilet cubicle in order to verbally insult and attack her. Judge Kemp also found Upton had been mistreated by Peggie’s barrister who referred to Upton as a man throughout the trial.