LAVA HRRT Case v PRIDE Update January 2026
Happy New Year to all our friends and supporters.
2026 has started well for those of us who are fighting to protect the rights of women and girls, and who know that being same sex attracted means just that.
On 16 January, the judgment in the UK-based Darlington Nurses case was released. The nurses have won their employment-tribunal claim against County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. The Judgement says that forcing female nurses to share changing facilities with a male colleague who identifies as a woman violated their dignity and created a “hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment.”
The judgment concludes that Darlington Memorial Hospital’s Transition in the Workplace policy, which allows transgender staff to use the changing room of their choice (our bold italics), is unlawful.
Read here for the full report
Similar policies are in place in workplaces in New Zealand, and in New Zealand schools. The Darlington nurses’ win in this area supports us in the fight for single sex changing rooms and other spaces where our right to dignity and privacy needs to be respected.
Jennifer Melle, also an English nurse, has had the case against her dropped. Two years ago, an incarcerated paedophile who had been transferred to the hospital where Jennifer worked repeatedly called her the N word because she would not use female pronouns for him because of her Christian faith. Her employer’s response was a written warning and a referral to the Nursing and Midwifery Council. When she publicly complained about this treatment, her employer suspended her. While no further action will be taken against Melle, her name has been dragged through the mud – there has been no apology and no justice.
As Josephine Bartosch says in the Daily Express (23 January 2026) “Condemning a racist paedophile who abused a nurse should be a no brainer”.
So, a decision not to give puberty blockers, with their known evidence of serious side-effects and no proof of efficacy, to children who are too young to consent. Of course that decision is being challenged in New Zealand at the moment. You can watch an interview with Jan Rivers, Genspect NZ spokesperson and LAVA member on the Court proceedings from Monday 26 January here and click here and for an easy to read and clear summary of the issues with the UK Puberty Blockers trial.
Meanwhile, as we wait for a decision in our case, in Melbourne our sisters in the Lesbian Action Group will be back in Court on February 23 and 24 fighting for the right (which has been denied them by the Australian Human Rights Commission) to meet together as lesbians in a room in the Melbourne Pride Centre.
Please consider donating to their appeal here https://lesbianactiongroup.org.au/donate-to-lag
Finally, a huge thank you to you all for your ongoing support and for your donations, which continue to come in – it really does help knowing you are all behind us, and we are gradually getting closer to having raised all the money needed to be able to pay our bills.