A judge has told a non-binary health worker who tried to sue their NHS Trust over being ‘deadnamed’ and ‘mis-pronouned’ that they should not have been so offended.
Using preferred pronouns to live as non-binary does not have the same protected status as reassigning sex, employment judge Ann Nicola Benson found.
The case was brought against Cheshire and Wirral NHS Foundation Trust and six staff members by Haech Lockwood, a cognitive behavioural therapist.
The panel, led by judge Benson, said it was relevant that although Lockwood had changed their name and preferred pronouns, they were not proposing to reassign their sex from female to male.
‘We therefore find that the claimant does not have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment,’ the judgement added.
Among the claims from Lockwood, who was born female and was previously known as Heather, were that they were referred to as ‘her’ on a series of IT servicedesk tickets and as ‘she’ or ‘her’ by colleagues during several interactions.
They were also sent employment contracts with their ‘deadname’, despite having changed it by deed poll and having previously brought grievances about similar issues.
Lockwood, who unsuccessfully applied for anonymity, received an apology on each occasion they raised a concern.
‘All staff involved demonstrated a real intention to do their best to ensure they get it right going forward and propose and, in most cases, put in place positive steps to achieve this,’ the judgement found.
Despite this, Lockwood would not accept an apology unless it showed a ‘deep understanding’ of the impact it had on them.
And they demanded an apology from the IT team, instead of the apology on its behalf that had been issued.
‘We consider that the apologies given by every member of the Trust were genuine and heartfelt, and such as to seek to ensure the claimant’s concerns were appreciated and understood by them,’ judge Benson wrote.
‘It is unfortunate that the claimant was unwilling to accept them as such and take such an inflexible stance.’
Haech Lockwood was unsuccessful in their case against Cheshire and Wirral NHS Foundation Trust and six staff members
Among the claims from Lockwood, who was born female and was previously known as Heather, were that they were referred to as ‘her’ on a series of IT servicedesk tickets and as ‘she’ or ‘her’ by colleagues during several interactions.
One of the complaints related to an IT ticket Lockwood received after flagging an issue on July 5, 2023, which used the pronoun ‘her’ to describe them.
Lockwood responded to say the misgendering had left them distressed, and the IT technician immediately emailed to apologise, changed the pronoun ‘her’ to ‘their’ and left a note for the next person so they would be aware of Lockwood’s non-binary status.
The tribunal found that Lockwood had not told the IT technician of their non-binary status when they made the call, and the technician had taken steps to remedy the situation at the time.
‘Although the claimant says that it was not up to them to, for example, tell someone their pronouns, that takes away their opportunity to influence the environment and educate colleagues as to the environment they seek to create – particularly where the social norms are binary, and there are such a small number of non binary people in the organisation,’ the judge said.
‘The claimant approach has, as indicated by one of the witnesses, been unforgiving.’
Lockwood had claimed that the incidents had violated their dignity and left them feeling ‘unsafe’ – but judge Benson said there was no evidence of the conduct having that effect.
Dismissing the claim, she wrote: ‘Offending against dignity or hurting is not enough.’
‘Although we do not dispute the offence, distress and frustrations that these issues have had upon the claimant, we find that viewed objectively the claimant has not shown facts from which we could conclude that the conduct violated the claimant’s dignity.’
