FFS Friday: Karen Danson and the Darlington Nurses

May 23, 2025

FFS (Female Free Speech) Friday honors women and girls who are speaking out about the harms that “gender identity” poses to women and girls as a sex class. FFS Friday posts are free and shareable.

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Today’s FFS Friday celebrates Karen Danson and “the Darlington Nurses.” This is a group of eight nurses in the UK who are challenging their employer’s policy of allowing a man to use the women’s changing room at work. The man calls himself a woman named “Rose.”

Or, as the BBC would have it:

A group of nurses are challenging their health trust's policy over allowing a trans colleague to use the female changing rooms at work.

They have filed claims at an employment tribunal on the grounds of sexual harassment, discrimination, victimisation and breaches of the right to a private life, under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The eight nurses object to their employer allowing their colleague, who was born male but identifies as a woman, to use the facilities at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

One of them is Karen Danson, and, until recently, she was anonymous. But she has spoken out about the situation and revealed what may be a somewhat shocking development: The very same employer that has allowed a man to use a women’s changing room insisted that the same man be permitted to participate in her emergency hysterectomy, notwithstanding this ongoing legal situation.

Photo: Daily Mail

According to the Daily Mail:

Karen Danson’s father started to sexually abuse her when she was six. It could have been yesterday, so vivid are the memories.

‘The first time, I was dragged downstairs at 1am,’ says Karen, 45. He would watch porn and make me sit on his lap, but on this night, he pushed me to the floor, pulled off my nightie and made me rotate, saying he wanted to have a good look at me.

‘I wanted to be a ballet dancer back then and I closed my eyes and imagined myself dancing. He didn’t like that. He punched me and spat at me. I picked up my nightie and ran back to bed, and cried myself to sleep. After that it happened a minimum of three times a week for six years.’

She wasn’t at all happy when she entered the women’s changing room where she worked as a nurse, Darlington Memorial Hospital, and there was a man in there, getting changed.

That started happening nearly two years ago. At the time, twenty-six women signed a complaint letter to the HR department, which told them that they were “transphobic” and “in need of re-education.” Their nurses’ union abandoned them and called them “bigoted.”

So they took the matter to court.

The ones who were publicly identified said that they were doing this on behalf of vulnerable women who could not be identified, including one nurse who had endured child sexual abuse.

That woman is Karen Danson. She found herself alone in a women’s changing room with “Rose,” who stared at her and repeatedly demanded to know why she wasn’t removing her clothes. She was terrified.

Karen told the Daily Mail:

‘Inside I was thinking, “I am not getting changed in front of you, no”, but I couldn’t say anything. Then he gave this smirk, this expression, which was the same one my dad had when he was doing the abuse. He could see I was uncomfortable, and he didn’t seem to care.’

She spoke with a colleague named Beth Hutchinson, who decided to raise the formal complaint on behalf of herself and numerous other nurses. But their superiors ignored them, and worse. They said that “Rose” had a legal right to be in the women’s changing room and that if they didn’t like it, they could change elsewhere.

Karen said nothing publicly about her child sexual abuse or her involvement in this matter for years, but decided to break her silence earlier this month. When asked why she decided to speak out, she said (about Beth and the other colleagues who had gone public), “they’ve made me realise I am strong enough to do it.”

Then, something incredible happened.

She needed to have a hysterectomy due to ongoing endometriosis, and was scheduled to have it at Darlington. Then she learned that “Rose” was scheduled to be on the team conducting the surgery. He would be handing the surgeon the instruments. She says:

‘It was a gynaecological procedure, and his role would have been down at that end, passing the consultant the tools,’ she says, incredulous. She immediately pointed out the obvious (as she thought) issue here. ‘I told them that because there was a legal dispute under way, involving Rose, it was a conflict of interest, and entirely inappropriate that he should be involved in my surgery, especially intimate surgery like that.

‘Separately, there was the issue of my childhood abuse. I made it clear that I wanted as few men in that room as possible. I was told, “Well, Rose is a woman so Rose has a right to be there”.

‘The theatre manager also said, “How would Rose feel if she was asked not to come to theatre?”.’

Karen was dumbstruck. ‘I said, “Frankly, and sorry to be blunt, but I don’t care how Rose feels”. It made no sense. Shifts are changed all the time. They didn’t even have to tell Rose a reason, if they were worried about that.’

She escalated the complaint and was then told that the operation would be canceled and she could go elsewhere.

She involved lawyers, and finally, the procedure was performed without “Rose” in the room.

As far as I can tell from the news reports, the hospital continues to allow “Rose” to use the women’s changing room. The Darlington Nurses started their own union. In the meantime, the UK Supreme Court has ruled that sex is defined biologically under the UK’s Equality Act, and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has informed Darlington that it’s in violation of the law. In response, the hospital has called the entire situation a “complex and sensitive matter.” I would maintain that there’s nothing “complex” about it. “Rose” is a man. Get him out of the women’s changing room.

You can watch an interview with Karen here, if you’d like.

To Karen, Beth, and all the other Darlington Nurses, thank you for raising your voice. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for standing up for yourselves and for other women. Today’s FFS Friday is for you.