BBC ‘Woman’s Hour’ grills nurse on Christian beliefs in trans-related changing room dispute

A Darlington nurse was interrogated about her Christian beliefs on the BBC’s famous Woman’s Hour radio show, being grilled on whether those beliefs influenced her objection to a biological male using a female changing room at her hospital.

The nurse, Bethany Hutchinsen, along with other workers at Darlington Memorial Hospital, launched legal action in June against County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust over the changing room arrangement.

During a pointed discussion for the 20 November Woman’s Hour episode, Hutchinsen was repeatedly asked to justify her objection to sharing the changing room with the transgender colleague.

The BBC presenter, Nuala McGovern asks: “How do your Christian beliefs come into this [the issue of trans]?”

Hutchinsen replies: “I believe sex is a biological fact and that it isn’t interchangeable – at all.”

“Is that a Christian belief?” McGovern asks.

“I think it is a Christian belief and a scientific fact,” Hutchinsen replies.

The nurse was also questioned about her association with Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, which are assisting Hutchinsen in her legal case.

In the interview, Hutchinsen ends up having to give a “justification” for using their services. She notes that though she is “unapologetically Christian” and comes from a family that is “unapologetically Christian” too, at the same time “this is not a Christian campaign”. She adds that it is “for all women” and women of “different religions, different cultures, different backgrounds”.

McGovern goes on to describe the apparent problems of a religious organisation that supports, in the words of the BBC presenter, “individuals who want to challenge buffer zones outside abortion clinics”, and that supports people who hold a “biblical view on LGBT issues”.

McGovern says: “Does it concern yourself at all to align yourself that way?”

Hutchinsen replies: “No. It doesn’t concern me.”

The interview relates to a situation in which female NHS nurses at a hospital administered by the North-East NHS Foundation Trust raised concerns with the HR department in August 2023 after being required to share a single-sex changing room – without cubicles – with a transgender colleague who is biologically male and, according to comments in the interview, has not undergone any “gender reassignment” surgery.

In March 2024, a letter signed by 26 female NHS nurses was sent to the Trust’s director of workforce, highlighting the issue.

The letter described the situation as “inappropriate”, “intimidating” and “upsetting”, adding that it was not “appropriate to have a sexually active biological male sharing [the female] changing facilities”. The nurses further stated, “We obviously expect the trust to treat [the transgender colleague] with respect and dignity, but as the policy clearly states, that does not absolve the trust of its duty to those of us who find the current situation intolerable.”

A meeting was then held with the hospital’s Head of HR, during which it was stated that the hospital supported the transgender individual “150 per cent”. The 26 female NHS nurses who signed the letter were told they needed to “attend training”, “be educated” and “broaden their mindset”.

This was despite female nurses at the hospital – including vulnerable women who had experienced sexual abuse and foreign nurses unable to remove any clothing in front of a man due to cultural reasons – reporting panic attacks before shifts due to potentially having to undress in front of an adult biological male who, Hutchinsen says, is known to be sexually active with a female partner.

The nurses have also alleged that their biologically male colleague spent long periods walking around the changing rooms partially undressed and engaging in conversation with female nurses as they changed.

According to the interview, the trust proposed a compromise by providing a separate changing area for the protesting nurses. However, this space was a tiny office without furniture, and it still fell under the hospital’s “inclusive” policy, which meant the transgender individual could access the room that the nurses had have been moved to and change there also.

Hutchinsen is one of eight women, all nurses, who are taking North-East England’s NHS Foundation Trust to an employment tribunal over the matter.

Woman’s Hour, on air since 1946, is intended to amplify “women’s voices and women’s lives” through “topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire”.

Photo: Bethany Hutchinsen (right) along with other nurses at her Darlington hospital. (Credit: Christian Concern.)

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