What do you think about the rainbow flag?

isabellerosingol how exactly has the rainbow lanyard at work made you fear for your job and your livelihood? And how many times have you encountered trans women in the female toilets at your work?

Shall we compare it to the amount of times I've experienced casual homophobia in the workplace and in my life in general?

Lesbians are constantly being thrown under a bus on here.

Then there was what happened to the eight brave lesbians at Pride. Something is seriously wrong here

Absolutely agree.

All the history talks about it being created in 1978, but it wasn't around in the UK when I came out at the end of the 80s, it was all pink / black triangles, the labrys and double women symbols. I can't remember how it started to be popular here, and I've not found anything that explains it, but it was sometime mid or late 1990s maybe.

I’ve mentioned this before but Stonewall have called the police on me twice for protesting about lesbian rights outside their events.

Then there was what happened to the eight brave lesbians at Pride. Something is seriously wrong here.

Otherwise she is a hateful bigot

Calling your sister names in an attempt to bully and coerce her into doing something she does not want to do is quite despicable. This lobby is synonymous with authoritarians who repeatedly lecture women. Their control words should be resisted.

The local prison here flies the flag. Sadly the flag itself is no longer meaningful. (Just my opinion)

Exactly. My lesbian sister was not best pleased to hear that she really ought to sleep with a male bodied lesbian because - y’know stonewall says they are a lesbian. Otherwise she is a hateful bigot.

The 'pushing out of lesbians' is an entirely different conversation and nothing to do with the rainbow flag

A totally false assertion. It is because of Stonewall's colonisation by the trans lobby

I do think that the Fair Cop guys and some people here are getting paranoid about this

Harry Miller has a police record, yet a judge has ruled he committed no crime. Public confidence in the police is at an all time low, yet while they fail to investigate real crimes, they are zealous about policing Twitter at the behest of a lobby whose adherents are prone to making spurious accusations of hate speech. That was another observation by Justice Knowles. It is interesting that you dismiss public disenchantment with this dysfunctional, Orwellian situation as paranoid. It is nothing of the sort. But the more these events are reported, the more public resistance will increase. That's great news for democracy and freedom of speech.

The whole Pride - it’s become something very different.

Who are the loudest voices, who are making the demands? This is why some people are now looking at the rainbow and having feelings on unease. The activists are making women feel that they are having their rights targeted - this is something that gay rights activists never demanded.

The lanyards are just handed out willy nilly in offices and events these days. It doesn’t mean the person is a ‘good person’. Staff are being bullied into wearing them - for whatever reason - how does that make them feel?

Agree with the OP. I find it intimidating. I used to find it inspiring that people could get together & be inclusive of different lifestyles, etc, but now it's becoming increasingly about who is excluded, very restrictive of what & who are "acceptable".

In what context? If you find gay bars intimidating then there are millions of others without rainbow flags you can go to

No, not gay bars. I already explained, as did others, about workplaces using the rainbow flag and rainbow lanyards etc. I fear for my job, my livelihood, and I know that I almost certainly can't use the toilets and be sure that they are only for women.

could ask the same question? I find the rainbow flag to be intimidating. Do my feelings not matter?

In what context? If you find gay bars intimidating then there are millions of others without rainbow flags you can go to.

Yes Lordfrontpaw as a lesbian a rainbow lanyard makes me feel safe and accepted. There are plenty of nasty, judgmental, homophobic people in the world.

The 'pushing out of lesbians' is an entirely different conversation and nothing to do with the rainbow flag.

A lanyard makes you feel safe? So people need to wear something to display fact that they aren’t homophobic? You aren’t concerned about the pushing out of lesbians by the T part of the rainbow?

Do our feelings not matter?

I could ask the same question? I find the rainbow flag to be intimidating. Do my feelings not matter?

To all the people who dislike the rainbow flag, what is your solution?

Bars and other businesses shouldn't use it at all? NHS workers shouldn't wear the lanyards?

Where does that leave all the gay people like me who see it the way it is intended? As something that makes us feel safe, acknowledged and accepted? Do our feelings not matter?

*Just happened to me, about 3 minutes before spotting the thread. Southwest trains ticket collector has a rainbow lanyard.

What is that all about. Trains should be women friendly, gay friendly, child friendly, racial minority friendly, elderly friendly, disabled friendly, whatever. We have all bought ticket in order to get from A to B, and all we really want from the train company is to do this efficiently.*

Exactly. As regards NHS rainbow lanyards and badges we have a duty of care towards everyone who uses the NHS. It's in our professional codes of conduct.
Do you think the elderly man I spoke to yesterday who had spent 24 hours on a trolley in A&E before he finally got a bed gives a damn about the rainbow? He was very sweetly sympathising with the other people even worse off on their trolleys and the people stuck on wheelchairs who didn't even get a trolley.
A sense of proportion and understanding priorities goes a long way.

I'm a bisexual woman.

Feminism (the mainstream type) these days means including everyone (i.e. men), and no longer centers women. It carries no real meaning or weight and is unable to effect genuine change.

Similarly, the rainbow flag these days seems to me about including everyone from the alphabet soup and about people's fetishes and a way for straight people to feel special with all sorts of made up identities. It doesn't center respect for LGB / same-sex attraction. It's all about the 'queers' and is usually accompanied by the trans flag to indicate that no one else is as special as the T.
It carries no real meaning or weight and is unable to effect genuine change.

It's more irritating, than worrying to me, although if I see it in schools I immediately worry about indoctrination from Stonewall, and it's sinister seeing the police become obsessed by it.
Otherwise it's a lazy way for corporations and services to act like they are all about 'inclusiveness' and 'diversity' when in reality it's a fashionable bandwagon that they think might bring in a few more pennies or Twitter likes. They don't give the same consideration to people who are disabled or have learning difficulties or from different ethnic, social and educational backgrounds. Easy to slap on a rainbow lanyard or badge and think that makes you very open minded and accepting (while denouncing anyone who doesn't agree with TWAW as abhorrent bigots).

The rainbow flag doesn't feel like it represents and welcomes me as a bisexual woman. It no longer respects my same sex attraction. I am bigoted and transphobic.
Lesbians, gays and bisexuals are not allowed room to simply be themselves anymore.
I read a short article a couple of days ago written by a gay man about his time as a young man in the 80s and 90s, and somehow in the text he managed to work in a grovelling self derogatory apology for being a 'cis, white, privileged male'. Like FFS, have some self-respect! Why does a gay man have to apologise when talking about his life around the time of Section 28, when it was genuinely difficult being openly homosexual than it is today to be an 'oppressed' queer, non-binary demisexual, cis femme who is in a 'lesbian' relationship with a transwoman who looks like your average bloke. 🙄🙄🙄

There is so much pro Trans and LGB support I wonder if as an old white woman I would be ignored if I approached a police person.
To be fair I don't really think this is the case but so much rainbow does smack of favouring to make up for historical bias.

I do think that the Fair Cop guys and some people here are getting paranoid about this

Paranoid? How is it paranoid when you have the police turning up at your workplace and threatening you for thinking wrong thoughts? Even the judge said it was Orwellian!

It's sad. It used to be such a strong symbol of liberation and anti-oppression for the gay and lesbian community but it has effectively been hijacked.

However, I remember that for many gays and lesbians it still is. I think of how powerful and inspirational it remains for gays and lesbians throughout the world who face terrible oppression and risk imprisonment and even death (literal death not the nonsense TRAs spout here) just to wield it.

So yeah, mixed feelings

I do think that the Fair Cop guys and some people here are getting paranoid about this

I really don't see the evidence that rainbow lanyards are a LGBTAFDAREAWAFD++++++ symbol. I've got a rainbow ratchet strap for tying things onto the car - I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with that. Some things are just done in rainbow because it's a nice set of colours.

Not underestimating the existence of homophobia in the workplace and other places at all, Sappho. That's one of the very pressing reasons I still think Stonewall had a very real mission to engage with even after marriage equality, but sadly they've decided lying about the law and creating award ponzi schemes is better for them than genuinely confronting anti-gay sentiment in a constructive way.

FWIW, I still have a few rainbow bits and badges, and I'm part of the Pride network at work, but I am under no illusions that I'm really part of anything very useful. Tbh, the best relationships I have at work in terms of challenging anti gay feeling are via chats in the staff canteen over the day's papers. A very lively discussion ensued after Phillip Schofield, for example, and myself and another gay colleague were able to naturally address some of the misconceptions that arose, and there wasn't a lanyard in sight.

My town hall has three flag poles, always flys the Union Jack, and the borough flag. Third is usually up for grabs.
It’s proudly flying the rainbow flag, and I’m not sure why? Is it LGBT history month? I’m pretty sure we had pride ‘weeks’ all over summer, so it’s never ending apparently. Might as well be the year of the rainbow and be done with it.
Although tbf, it does fly the England flag at times too. I wonder what’ll be next. Maybe I’ll ask them, or make some suggestions... what Wimmin days/flags can I make them aware of?

I am assuming the recent corporate enthusiasm has little to do with the LGBs

It appears most people on this thread are assuming the same.

I see the corporate enthusiasm as about tolerance and acceptance of everyone, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

Coming out at work can be difficult, I've had to do it all my adult life. In my current job it took me about 3 months to admit to colleagues my partner was a woman and I had no idea how they would react. If I'd seen a rainbow lanyard it would have been a huge relief and I would know there was at least one ally in the business or the business was a tolerant place to work.

Don't underestimate how homophobic people can be in the workplace. Recently a colleague spotted a client had joined a LGBT LinkedIn group - he loudly announced it to the whole office saying 'bloody hell he must be a poofter, well he's off my Christmas card list'