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.

On the contrary, you keep saying LBGT represent a single characteristic when it doesn’t cover all of ‘sexuality’ (heterosexuality is also covered by sexuality) and includes groups that are not covered by ‘gender reassignment’. It also links T with LGB when the Supreme Court made explicitly clear that ‘gender reassignment’ does not change the definition of sexuality, and neither does a GRC. You seem desperate to continue to force-team these groups. No doubt it is helpful for those who want to imply ‘Q+’ are also protected when they are not.

I’ve said that sexuality and gender reassignment are protected characteristics. I was asked for the link to support what I said so I did. You told me again I was wrong so I provided the government source that states sexuality and gender reassignment are protected characteristics. I’m sorry if this is difficult for you to understand but it really makes no difference. They are protected characteristics by law.

We had 2 trans customers who each came about twice a year and about 4 severely disabled customers who needed the disabled changing room. All the other disabled customers were able to use the (more basic) disabled facilities to the single sex changing rooms.

Total non-issue.

Yep, same goes for all the other people wrongly claiming the same.

Catch a grip of yourself OP.

I mean seriously.

It is an infringement of anyone's rights to force them to wear a badge supporting ANY ideology they do not agree with. There are plenty of people here who do not support the T in LGBTQ and there are plenty of others who do not support the L or the G or the B, etc., whether due to religious conviction or other and they have ABSOLUTELY every right to not support ideologies they disagree with. If you can't understand that then you sound like a complete fascist. Truly a fascist. Not as the left try to falsely label conservatives.

If we had a tenner for everytime we explained that on this thread alone we’d be on our way to a good profit

It really is like thought crime.The least people are entitled to is the freedom to keep their own counsel and their views to themselves.

The phrase 'bring your whole self to work' is a sickener. My employer gets my whole professionalism. No one has a right to demand more, or to expect full access to people's personal beliefs and attitudes just because they happened to ask for them.

Some things are private, and I'm entitled to keep them private. NO to pronouns, NO to lanyards, NO to information about my sexuality on participation surveys, NO to information about my religious beliefs, NO to signalling my conformity with whatever fashionable cause people want me to pin on my lapel this week.

Just 'No'.

I don't wear political badges of any kind in my workplace (work with children) its unprofessional. I keep my ideological/religious/political beliefs to myself. Maybe you should consider doing the same, or at least not castigating others who do.

💯

I couldn’t impart “information” I felt was untrue.

I think everyone should have a name badge and leave it at that. No rainbow no nothing just the staff members name. That would end of all this

As a late 40s woman, I just don't understand the hatred for trans people as I was brought up to be tolerant. However, I do appreciate that many people are intolerant of many groups and I guess that is part of life sadly.

No hatred or intolerance. We just want men to stay out of our spaces.

In regards to pronouns. She/her/him/him/they/them are not pronouns I use to refer to myself - they are pronouns I use to refer to others or others use to refer to me. By declaring a set of ‘preferred pronouns’ you are demanding everyone else takes part in your fantasy or belief system regardless of their own belief in reality. It is your attempt to control MY speech. I consider it harassment.

Where a man wants to be referred to using female language, he is also stealing the language women need to refer to themselves, leaving us unable to describe our oppression. To ‘validate’ his identity requires the destruction of the meaning of sex and of women’s rights. It is part of what reduces women to a dehumanising selection of body parts and functions (cervix, vagina, breastfeeders, pregnant people).

And there is also this;

They should never have had the rainbow one, not wanting to actively support or promote something is not the same as being anti it. Some people, myself included, would rather just be neutral / non-committal, having this forced on you if you want to work there seems wrong. If it was an LGBT organisation, fair enough but it simply has a number of LGBT clients. Next step should be to remove rainbows altogether and just pick a colour.

bigot
/ˈbɪɡət/

noun
a person who is obstinately or unreasonablyattached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic towards a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.

Like the people unreasonably attached to the belief that men can become women on their say so and are prejudiced against anyone who points out the lie?

I suppose there is more prejudice against LGBTQ than disabled and women .
Could a comparison be drawn with white people during civil rights movement who privately had no issue with black people having equal rights but just didn’t want to be overt about their view ?
Just a thought . ..
I personally am live and let live as long as not harming others. But also support women only spaces .

I’m so fed up with identity politics.

A bunch of bullies and attention-seeking narcissists the lot of them. Keep politics out of schools and work places and shops. Not that long ago we had “live and let live” and common sense. Now it’s this constant stream of nauseating “rights” language and state and corporate sponsored indoctrination.

Sorry but I am wondering how an adult working with vulnerable children can get upset about whether their colleagues are wearing a rainbow badge or not, you need more resilience. Why do you think you have the right to judge others for not wearing one just because you want to. I will never ever wear one, not because I dont support my LGB friends/colleagues but I dont feel the need to virtue signal & I value freedom to choose.

@whatishappening123 Is your workplace not supposed to be a place to do work? I'm a bit confused as to why people need to broadcast their sociopolitical opinions.

Where a man wants to be referred to using female language, he is also stealing the language women need to refer to themselves, leaving us unable to describe our oppression.

For all those who think it is terribly 'impolite' not to use 'preferred pronouns' please consider this.

A man who identifies as a woman enters a women's changing rooms.

This incident can be described in two different ways, despite being the same occurrence.

1. The man entered the woman's changing rooms and took his clothes off in front of the women present.

Or

2. The woman entered the woman's changing rooms and took her clothes off in front of the women present.

Both describing the exact same incident. The second politely deferring to 'preferred pronouns'.

But if you saw that in a media report, you'd have a very different reaction, wouldn't you?

So which version is more useful for safeguarding women?

Yes, that’s why people don’t want to pretend they believe in gender identity ideology. It’s untrue. They feel uncomfortable promoting it.

You still claim that HR literally told you that red means against lbgtq? If you are working with vulnerable young people, you either work with the local authority or nhs (or equivalent if outside the UK) There's no way any professional HR department would say something so inflammatory. You know exactly what you're doing with this post, it's hateful, divisive and intentionally written to demonize those who don't think like you.

I will continue to hope that other people on the left remain sensible and see posts like these for what they truly are.

I also think this stuff has no place around vulnerable young children.

If HR genuinely positioned the name badges as 'for' or 'against' lgbtq, then they all want sacking.

What an extraordinary and appalling thing to do.

Im inclined to take that claim with a large pinch of salt @TheKeatingFive

A perfectly reasonable position.