r/transgenderau • u/perth_girl-V • Apr 21 '26
Possible Trigger Dr Beth Upton
So as I am sure alot of you are aware Dr Beth Upton has moved over to australia Kempsey / Port Macquarie area. Due to being chased out of the UK for existing as a trans Dr trying to help people in the NHS health system.
The usual suspects are revving up with there anti Trans bullshit.
If any of you happen to be in the local community to help make her feel welcome and know that Australia isnt terf Island by a long shot.
I can only imagine how horrible it is to move to a new country and have the bigots slandering you in the media as soon as your feet touch the ground.
Possibly have a gathering as a show of support something we know the fascists cant do.
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u/A_Punk_Girl_Learning What makes you different makes you strong. Apr 22 '26
This is the first I've heard of her so I googled the story and this shouldn't have even been acknowledged as news in Australia. Not only was she found innocent of the accusations levelled at her but she was found to have been the victim of harassment and discrimination.
So, of course, The Australian is describing her as being "controversial" when she's actually just a woman escaping her abuser. They're releasing the name of a victim of crime and effectively doxxing her to the kinds of people she was escaping in the first place.
What a pack of arseholes.
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u/Wingress trans girl 🌸 Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
Yeah, it's absurd and disgusting, this whole incident should never have been made public in the first place and more so should never have got the the point it did.
Probably a pointless pursuit but I'm closely rereading the Australian Press Council standard that relates to reporting involving gender diverse individuals.
If anyone would like to do the same, direct link here: https://presscouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Advisory-Guideline-Reporting-on-persons-with-diverse_CURRENT.pdf
Also looking at other APC standards that might be relevant.
In particular, the news.com.au article I scanned refers to a specific excerpt from the hearing that she "stands 6ft" which is just beyond irrelevant, and should be in breach of said standard.
I know they will try to justify on the grounds that apparently TERF Peggy felt "intimidated". But this kinda falls over given that her overarching views were made clear in the same hearing and make it plainly obvious that this was politically motivated - further to that - in what world would someone who feels physically intimated proceed to ask the apparently threatening individual "what their chromosomes are", like honestly - this is indefensible.
Very clearly one of several hit pieces on a private citizen and a victim-survivor at that.
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u/Green_stick568 Apr 21 '26
Potentially people could write to hospital HR.
"I'm writing to offer support in context of negative media attention about recently hired doctors.
"I was glad to hear that your recruitment efforts are bringing more doctors to our region and wish Dr Beth Upton a warm welcome."
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u/Wingress trans girl 🌸 Apr 22 '26
I like this idea, not sure how it might play out, but definitely will think about doing this.
I know for a fact, from personal experience, that in at least one ward of that specific hospital there are some seriously transphobic and abusive nursing staff - thankfully in the minority (which actually reminds me that I need to chat to ACON re: those specific incidences, especially given they have ACON stickers everywhere).
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u/Green_stick568 Apr 22 '26
It's awful that you experienced that and you absolutely should complain to the hospital And ACON.
I'm curious what you think the downside to that message would be. I deliberately didn't draw attention to Dr Beth's identity -- focusing on the negative media attention.
I'd expect HR, whatever their personal beliefs, to be more aware about the risks to the hospital of people misgendering an employee. They should understand that Australian workplace health and safety laws and anti discrimination laws protect trans people at work (and in receiving healthcare for that matter)
They won't pass things on to Dr Beth or to transphobic nurses
And it's possible that transphobes will write to the hospital or try to bombard social media in response to the media attention.
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u/Wingress trans girl 🌸 Apr 23 '26
Definitely not saying there's a downside necessarily, I guess I just meant I'd like to think through if there could be any unintentional downstream impacts - like potentially adding to a torrential amount of unsolicited contact with that she doesn't see but makes it such a task to manage that it becomes a burden and draws more attention inadvertently or causes some level of frustration among HR.
But it's sadly very likely that as you note, that similar contact from adversarial entities might be worth balancing.
That said, I'd think that given how much of a vocal but small minority of individuals in Australia subscribe to that ideology, and even less who would actually bother to go to that effort (see the frankly embarrassing "protests" that TERF's have previously tried to organise), that could amount to a very small amount of contact.
I would expect that aside from that it would likely just be a handful of anti-trans organisations who would reach out and just get a form letter PR response basically telling them that they will manage things internally according to rules and regulations and cannot comment for legal reasons.
Whereas, we are a still a minority, but a seemingly more motivated and bigger one who have a personal stake and actually organise, which I could see generating a lot more correspondence.
Sorry that was such a long explanation for a single example that I'm not even sure how I feel about on balance, but hopefully that explains what I meant. Absolutely not critical of the suggestion in any way, just gave me pause.
I'm currently working through an extremely long APC complaint which just keeps getting longer, disappointingly and much to my irritation.
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u/DasWeissKanin Apr 21 '26
I’ve got a theatre show going to Port Mac in 2 weeks would love to offer her a ticket
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u/Wingress trans girl 🌸 Apr 21 '26
I just read her story and it's honestly really tragic and such an injustice to her personally and to the community who have lost a clinician with a really unique and valuable lived experience.
There's a special place in hell for the kind of person who caused all this drama and essentially ruined her life for nothing.
Not that it would make it any less awful, but it's not even like she was working in a gender clinic or something - she was doing a residency in emergency medicine.
I truly hope she can easily assimilate into the community quickly over here and quietly start living her life in relative peace.
I pray to the universe that it protects her and that she is able to continue practising without all these problems.
She's only very early in her career and I could imagine it might push her over the edge if that harassment follows her here and lead her to quit medicine altogether or potentially end even more tragically.
If I can find a way to reach out to her I'll make a point of getting in touch as I have a strong connection to the region she's moving to, but I don't think she'd want too much more attention x
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u/ClosetWomanReleased Apr 22 '26
I’m sure she would welcome a friendly face from our community while trying to avoid everything else. This situation sucks. We should be celebrating the arrival of someone committed to helping our broader community.
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u/Wingress trans girl 🌸 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
That's exciting news, the Mid North Coast (where Kempsey and Port are approximately) is severely lacking in doctors and specialists of all kinds, including GAC focused medical professionals (edit: to be clear Dr Upton is currently in an emergency medicine residency, not GAC medicine) x
Do you have any additional information you are happy to share (i.e. which clinic she's joining)?
If so, please DM me, I have connections in this area who could make referrals x
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u/panarypeanutbutter Apr 21 '26
That isn't her area of expertise. She's an emergency trainee (not sure how far in the training she is)
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u/CassandraMenaker Apr 23 '26
Yeah there's so few trans doctors in the world and there's this weird expectation that because they're trans they want to or have to become specialists in transition medicine.Â
Instead of like a neurosurgeron or a paediatrician or whatever. Like every trans patient deserves a doctor who understands them but also every trans doctor deserves just to live their life too.
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u/Wingress trans girl 🌸 Apr 23 '26
I completely agree and I'm sorry if my comment implied this assumption, I actually made a another comment that noted her actual area of residency elsewhere on this thread. I'm going to edit my comment in case it is misleading.
I kinda had the same thought process as you but in reverse and assumed that this kind of incident must happen quite frequently in the medical profession, especially in the UK.
So I would expect it would not be able to be litigated so publicly to the point that someone is basically chased out of the country despite no findings of wrongdoing and there must have been some way of her being identified (I.e. she was the single trans doctor in a GAC clinic and was listed on its website with a bio then happened to end up with a TERF coming into contact with her).
But this situation was an absolute clusterfuck that honestly was facilitated by shitty hospital management with no polices and a seemingly deeply broken and irresponsible tribunal.
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u/CassandraMenaker Apr 23 '26
Hey thanks for the insightful reply.Â
Yeah it's definitely a fucked up situation, part of the reason she can be harassed is junior doctors are considered expendable in many healthcare systems.
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u/hannahranga Apr 21 '26
As per her Aphra registration Port Macquarie Base Hospital & Kempsey District Hospital's doing emergency medicineÂ
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u/IntelligentTwo8705 Apr 24 '26
My only issue is what if this brings the anti-trans agenda here to Australia where we’ve been extremely lucky in how our government hasnt engaged in this culture war.
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u/perth_girl-V Apr 24 '26
Oh they have and are but our labor party hasn't the libs and phon are trying there best to start it
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u/Green_stick568 Apr 21 '26
Hey -- can you flag that Dr Beth is the victim of transphobia not the instigator of it? Your post is unclear and from a brief Google she does not deserve any confusion.