A Christian nurse who has described being forced to accept Critical Race Theory by an NHS trust if she wants to continue her psychotherapy course is suing for racial and religious discrimination. The case is expected to be the first time so-called ‘woke ideology’ is tested in the courts.
Amy Gallagher, a 33-year-old mental health nurse, was studying forensic psychology at Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust – the trust that was forced to shut its controversial gender identify clinic in July last year after a report concluded it was unsafe for children.
Gallagher filed a complaint with the trust after being made to attend an online lecture on ‘whiteness – a problem for our time’ – which she said was essentially critical race theory for an hour. She said the speaker, Dr Anne Aiyegbusi, used racists phrases such as ‘white ignorance’ and was negative about Christianity (but no other religions were mentioned).
After the lecture, Gallagher told the course leader that she took a colour-blind approach and did not consider herself a racist. She was then pulled into a meeting and told her views were ‘contrary to anti-racist thinking’. She told staff that her view of not being racist was ‘not judging a person by the colour of their skin, treating people equally, not being prejudiced’. The response was that her approach was ‘outdated and a discredited view at the Tavistock’.
The following month, the nurse said she was told in another race lecture that ‘Christianity is racist because it is European’. In March this year, an external speaker at the trust made a complaint to the Nursing and Midwifery Council accusing her of causing ‘inflicted race-based trauma’.
Gallagher recently said she had been threatened with suspension. Speaking to the Telegraph, she said: 'They are forcing critical race theory onto people - you're not allowed to disagree with it, or they will bully you for two years. The NHS is forcing someone to adopt a racist ideology and it needs to be stopped.'
A Go Fund Me page #StandUpToWoke Tavistock discrimination Lawsuit had already raised £134,694 at the time of writing.
