Rainbow badges at work - upset

[whatishappening123]

I work in a sector with vulnerable young people. A few years ago, we made the decision as a company to wear as part of our uniform, a name tag with the rainbow on as part of pledging our support to LGBT+
We have all received new name badges and for the first time ever- an option has been provided to have a red coloured one instead of the rainbow if staff 'do not agree with LGBT+'
I have raised this with HR and union and been told that staff are now allowed to choose and that is their right.
I feel really upset by this - colleagues I have known for years are now deciding against the rainbow badge.
We work with the most vulnerable- who are often LGBT. Some of our service users have asked staff directly why they are not using them- and they have lied saying " They'd run out , or the pin on the rainbow ones are crap, some staff are hiding the red ones.
It's not a majority by any means - it's probably about 11 staff in a staff of 60.
I just feel really really upset by it, but I can't quite put my finger on why.
I also don't understand how people can be 'against' LGBT
It's a protected characteristic.

No one can make me promote anything and how dare you think you can?! I don’t care one iota about people’s sexuality but am I hell going to be guilt tripped by people like you op, who think they have the right to make me confirm to beliefs you insist I should promote.

I don’t believe you can change sex, I do believe you can love any sex or gender and no, I don’t have to wear a bloody rainbow.

LGBT is not ‘a protected characteristic’.

The protected characteristics are

• age
• gender reassignment
• being married or in a civil partnership
• being pregnant or on maternity leave
• disability
• race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

Many women feel that trans/gender activism is encroaching on their hard-won rights and protections, which is why they might not want to support the rainbow movement.

If there was a badge for Heterosexual people - let's say orange with yellow dots - how many people from the LGBT community, do you suppose might choose that badge to wear?

Answer - ZERO

And yet, straight people are expected to opt to wear an LGBT badge, even though they are :

NOT gay
NOT lesbians
NOT Bi-sexual
NOT Trans

Can you see the IRONY and complete double standards?

I DON'T CARE what you do in the bedroom. I certainly don't want that incorporated into the workplace.

Grow the hell up. Stop trying to force straight people to wear LGBT badges - we don't fucking want to It's a form of bullying actually.

My eyes can't roll far enough back in my head for this.

I don’t need a badge to tell people I’m not racist, so I also don’t need a badge to declare I’m not homophobic. I would say that, as the mum of a lesbian daughter, I’ve been shocked at the levels of homophobia I’ve come across - mostly Church of England Christians. It’s so odd the things people get hung up about but I don’t think a badge will change their views. I also don’t care whether Jane in accounts is fucking a man or a woman… but if she could answer my bloody email that would be great!

Many of us who actively support LGB initiatives do not believe that the T belongs there as T has nothing to do with sexual orientation. I won’t support Pride any more for this reason.

T++ needs their own group!

I wouldn't wear a rainbow badge as it conflicts with my beliefs. I don't believe anyone should be forced to wear something they don't agree with. I also don't believe that I should not be able to work somewhere due to my beliefs as this would be discriminatory.

Can't have everything your own way now can you.

Maybe just everyone should wear a neutral badge. I am not convinced the whole rainbow thing is helpful as it singles out LGBTQ. Which is fine in a sense ( no one would deny the discrimination and abuse people who are LGBTQ have experienced and continue to face ) but what about people with disabilities, people from ethnic and cultural minorities etc.
Perhaps we should just foster a culture of acceptance generally. Challenge ourselves about all our preconceptions. And that would include supporting those who don't want to wear a badge related to one specific community.

I'm gay, people should have freedom of choice, and I certainly don't want anyone who's not genuinely supportive of gay rights to wear any symbol indicating that they might be.
You're over thinking it. Leave them be. I don't wear a poppy, I HATE the whole performative hoo-ha around the wearing of poppies, and I wouldn't be happy for our work badges to suddenly all have poppy symbols on them.

I think it's worse that previously people HAD to wear a politically affiliated badge despite nearly a fifth of the company clearly not wanting to, if I'm honest - and I'd come under the LGBT+ description.

That was completely inappropriate, same as making people wear a label with the colours of the Palestine flag or everyone wearing a cross or having to cover their hair or whatever.

What if some of your service users didnt agree with "lgbt" (which could cover a lot of different things) - they might have found your badges intimidating and upsetting.

Surely as staff your work should be independent and you should treat people politely and respectfully regardless of whether you hold the same opinions about sexuality, religion or whatever.

What on earth is wrong with just plain name badges and treating everyone the same You shouldn't have to wear a badge for lgbt customers to feel safe with you.

LGB has nothing to do with the T. They should never be teamed together in the way they have been. In fact the T is the antithesis of homosexuality, it is positively homophobic in suggesting to young vulnerable gay and lesbian people the myth that they could identify out of their homosexuality by pretending to be the opposite sex, instead of being supported to accept it. No professional should be promoting the child harming cult of transgender ideology to them, which has led many to mutilate and sterilise themselves. Besides it's sex that is the protected characteristic, not gender identity, sex defined as meaning biological sex. Why should service providers wear a badge that proclaims they support one protected characteristic but not others? People don't wear badges that state they are not racist, sexist, ableist etc. That should be taken as read, as those characteristics are protected in law including employment law governing service providers. Objecting to the promotion of rainbow badges does not make someone homophobic. People are finally able to say they are over the constant over promotion of transgender ideology which is often in direct conflict with the rights of women and homosexuals, and does irrevocable harm to children and young people.

No workplace should be ‘encouraging’ their staff to wear a badge declaring their opinions on anything.
It’s just virtue signalling anyway as many people wear stuff to virtue signal and just do it to hide their real views from public sight.
They reflect/follow whatever’s the ‘on trend’ opinion of the moment while secretly not giving a flying f..k!

Imagine not being prepared to show support to the LGB vulnerable young people just so you can show your hatred for the ‘t”!

All that should be on an ID badge is your name, workplace and role. It shouldn’t be a declaration of anything else.

Imagine not being able to show support for disabled young people, Muslim and Christian young people and those of other faiths, people of different races and nationalities….

Can you provide evidence for this in the England at least. There are approximately half a dozen trans women in the female estate in england and a recent report showed most, if not all we're held in a seg unit in one prison and only allowed to interact with the female population whilst having 1 on 1 supervision.
Every trans woman deemed even a slight risk is housed in the male estate.
And please don't bring up Isla Bryson as a gotcha as Isla was in the women's estate, but held in segregation whilst they did that very risk assessment and would have ended up in the male estate.
You could argue that the assessment should be fine elsewhere, but to my knowledge in England at least there are 0 trans women in gen pop in the female estate.
What you really should be campaigning for is the removal of male officers in the female prison estate who pose a huge threat to prisoners.

First thing that comes to mind is branding people with badges during the Holocaust. It's disgusting - if people are against it, just don't wear a rainbow badge?

One of my closest friends is a lesbian. She and her wife want nothing to do with the rainbow flag as they feel it’s been hijacked. They see the trans movement as homophobic, regressive, harmful to children, women, autistic people etc and I agree with them. No chance they, or I, would wear a rainbow badge. Thankfully people now have the option at your work, as they always should have, although the way your work have framed that choice, is wrong.

People should be able to get on with their job without this being an issue.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-45825838

I have zero problem with people being gay - or trans for that matter - and would happily support a client who was either.

But I wouldn't want to wear a rainbow badge as I don't agree with all of gender ideology - specifically, medical transitioning of vulnerable young people, or males in women's spaces.

I wouldn't want to wear an "anti-LGBT" badge either. However I may pick the red badge as I'd assume that was actually the neutral one, and that whoever called it "anti-LGBTQ" was being a bit snide.

Remember the census proved that men who identify as trans are five times more likely to be sex offenders than other men. And prison statistics show that more than half of trans inmates are sex offenders.

Could you provide your evidence first please. Where are you getting “half a dozen, all in segregation, zero risk” from?

@whatishappening123
I work in a sector with vulnerable young people. A few years ago, we made the decision as a company to wear as part of our uniform, a name tag with the rainbow on as part of pledging our support to LGBT+

Can't your company see that by showing support for those vulnerable people that ARE LGBT+, they are telling those vulnerable young people who AREN'T LGBT+ (especially not T+), that they are NOT supported and especially that they would not be supported if they dare express GC views?

A sector supporting vulnerable people should be neutral to everyone.

If I needed the services of a counsellor and they were wearing a rainbow badge I would leave because they would clearly judge me if I were to talk about GC issues which I assume is NOT want you want you vulnerable people to do?

Exactly, the OP is clearly twisting this to suit her own agenda.

OP - YABU.

The red is NOT anti-LGBT. You are being dramatic and divisive.

Who the hell cares if someone doesn't want to wear a rainbow name badge. Could be any number of reasons why not. Personally I wouldn't wear one just to disassociate myself from this kind of hysterical, hyperventilating conformity

Of course the red badge does not specifically mean they are against LGBT+, merely that they don’t want to wear a rainbow badge and that could be for many reasons. I suspect for at least some it is the enforced support of the T.