Remember me
It may have taken a 16-day trial, 24 witnesses and 4,500 pages of evidence, but finally justice has been served.
This ruling is unequivocal. County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust created a 'hostile, humiliating and degrading environment' for female nurses, 'violating the dignity' of these women in their place of work.
To me, this ruling is just common sense. After all, I've been campaigning for more than 40 years to create female-only spaces – women's safety depends on it. Indeed, in 1974, feminists got the right to female-only spaces enshrined in law.
But over the past decade, I've despaired as that right to privacy has been eroded by trans ideologues intent on putting the whims of a tiny number of troubled males above the safety of women.
When the Supreme Court ruled last year that a woman is defined by biological sex – in short, that trans women are men – I hoped the tide might yet turn once again. Thank God, with this judgment, I believe it has.
I grew up in Darlington and the vast majority of my family still live there. Indeed, before he died four years ago, my father was treated with the utmost care by nurses from the Memorial Hospital. He never had a bad word to say about them and some of my old school chums are in their number. What these nurses have endured, however, is scandalous.
We all know nurses are the backbone of the NHS. And yet these women – who go through immense physical and emotional strain every day – were forced to get changed while, according to evidence given at the tribunal, a biological male wandered around in a pair of boxer shorts gawping at them.
The victorious Darlington Nurses leave after a press conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Newcastle
Rose Henderson, pictured after giving evidence at the tribunal in Newcastle last year
Read More Nurses who sued NHS trust over transgender colleague using female changing rooms win tribunal
One of the nurse claimants, Karen Danson, even bravely revealed that the experience triggered flashbacks to a time when she was sexually abused as a child.
It's important to stress that whether the trans woman in question, Rose Henderson – whom large parts of the Press inexplicably still refer to as 'she' – is a danger to women or not is besides the point. Having a biological male in a female changing room is unnerving and discomfiting.
Similarly, most men don't want a woman changing in their space. It's just uncomfortable. But, of course, when it comes to men around women, there's always the lingering prospect of physical and sexual violence. The integrity of female-only space can literally be a life or death issue.
But make no mistake. These nurses aren't victims. They are brave women who took on an organisation in thrall to trans ideology, risking their careers and livelihoods in the process, and won. It reaffirms what I've always known: there is nothing more powerful than a working-class woman who's had enough.
And this isn't just a victory for the nurses who brought the tribunal, but for all biological women. Especially those working in other public institutions, such as policing, media and education, where safety has been deprioritised in favour of woke gender ideology.
We have seen other groups, such as the Women's Institute and Girl Guides, roll back on the inclusion of trans women, but many have done so reluctantly. This judgment proves that the law has caught up with common sense and all organisations must now rid themselves of poisonous gender politics or face criminal repercussions.
Finally society appears to be opening its eyes to see that the Emperor is wearing no clothes. And when he is finally forced to put on some trousers, he won't be doing so in a female-only changing room.
Share or comment on this article: JULIE BINDEL: All biological women, not just these brave nurses, should be celebrating this victory for common sense