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.

Here's a thought - what about having name badges with no colour at all so no employee is denoted by the colour of their badge?

Therefore there is no issue about it and clients can judge the people who work for and with them by how they do their job and not by the colour of their badge.

It would at least save on badge printing costs.

So you're upset some staff have a red lanyard, not the rainbow and you don't even wear one?!!!

I don't give a shit what consenting adults get up to sexually and I refuse to endorse a private act by wearing anything!

The shark has been well and truly jumped. Enough already. STFU about your sex lives - I don't want to hear anything about it.

Tbh i cant see anyone who is LGBT feeling better because their service provider is wearing a rainbow. I dont think it will reassure vulnerable ones, nd I think how you treat them and the service you offer will show them youre an ally to them as an individual not just a cause.

But if the rainbow badge makes you more comfortable you should keep it

You are trying a slight of hand as you have moved your claim from T to GR

Individuals with T identity may or may not be included under the PC of GR

The courts have ruled that the PC only applies if (one of each) □ and ○ and ¤ can be "ticked"

Gender reassignment
(1)A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person
□ is proposing to undergo,
□ is undergoing or
□ has undergone
a process (or part of a process)
○ for the purpose of reassigning the person's sex by changing,
¤ physiological or
¤ other attributes
of sex.

So the bloke who liked to wear a skirt and make up and growing out his beard and tinker with his range rover engine while wearing massive rings while keeping his penis and all other body parts in their original physical state may call himself T

However in legal terms as he fails to tick the ○ as he never intends to tick either one of the ¤ boxes so the law sees him as being in the same class as the bloke who lost his NB court case.

I think it’s wrong that LGBT stole the rainbow colours!! Make up your own logo and let everyone enjoy the rainbow again.

Naaaa... let them be offered retraining and an option to sign a waiver to allow their employer to recoop any legal costs or expenditure incurred in an internal process or ET against their future earnings and pension pot.

A risk of personal liability tends to calm a lot of radical activism down to a level of civil professional communication and mutual respect

Even Maggie Chapman MSP voted to comply with the law on single sex toilets in the Scottish Parliament (unlike her attitude to them elsewhere) because the rules made her personally liable.

Oh do fuck off. I can guarantee you’ve only joined this forum for such events.

BTW can you provide a list of the prisons which engage in the torture of the remaining 5% of the men held in the female estate?

As other posters have stated being given badges/lanyards Is fairly standard and company driven

My place is badges not lanyards

We all have to.wear a name badge. Lanyards is a different posters workplace

They genuinely did
If you read my updates you see me clearly discussing the issue. Do report me for lying if you like. Mn will look at my user history and see I am.genuine and haven't had anything ever removed for lying or misrepresenting

There are plenty of Gay men, Lesbians and Bisexual people who are unhappy about the inclusion of the "T" and "Q" in the acronym. Many lesbians, in particular, find themselves under pressure to pretend they could potentially be attracted to intact, penis-bearing males who identify as women, and are branded "bigots" or "sexual racists" (actual quote from the head of Stonewall) if they are open about their lack of sexual attraction to males no matter what their clothing or level of dysphoria. I.e., they are being forced back into the closet. And some of them have come to dislike the rainbow flag for that reason. So it's not as straightforward as "if you don't wear a rainbow badge you're homophobic".

I’m not saying you are lying, but you seem a bit confused, and like others I don’t necessarily believe that’s what was being proposed, however individual staff members characterised it. It is potentially in breach of the Equality Act to create a hostile environment in the workplace for those not sharing your religion or belief.

Yet.

I have to say that calling a badge that isn't a rainbow 'anti-lgbt' is pretty misrepresentative...

Do you understand that harassing your colleagues and making vexatious complaints to HR about them because they chose not to wear a rainbow badge would likely be illegal @whatishappening123

Well if what you say is true you need to whistleblow the HR position to your board of management as it opens up a financial and reputation risk for your employer.

And NHS Fife has clocked up £ ¼m in legal fees [(edit) of from ] tax funding in their ET and they are (imo) going to have to pay damages too.

PS - being a gender critical feminist is also a protected characteristic. Do you think people shouldn’t be permitted to disagree with us?

A name badge is for your name.
If you work for an organisation supporting LGBT isn't that evidence enough that you aren't against LGBT people.
What is there to be offended about?

There's a guy who works somewhere I go regularly.

He's called 'George' (not his real name). George has a beard still and still uses the name George. He's obviously male. He doesn't put on a silly voice, nor does he wear 'female clothes'. He dresses flamboyantly but nothing that David Beckham wouldn't wear. And lots of David Bowiesque make up. Not a problem. Otherwise had been nice guy.

Anyway he got his name badge and started putting his pronouns on. Bit by bit his name badge got bigger and there's was more and more underlining and exclamation marks. THEN I thought self absorbed twat.

The pronoun badges and the rainbow lanyards are a mark of being a sheep, a twat or someone clueless at this point.

They are counter productive and the badges themselves start to cause divisions rather than promoting equality. That ship has long since sailed because we have had too much piss taking going on who aren't remotely motivated by inclusion and instead are homophobic.and sexist and often have a good helping of grift to accompany this.

The "rainbow" sign has changed from an acknowledgement of support to a declaration of personal politics.

I chose not to advertise my personal politics in the place that pays me, for example do not walk around with the sufferage colours (though I don't think anyone would notice that). I personally avoid anything with the rainbow flag, because it acutally advertises people who behave in with "millitaried kindness" and I have things to get on with.

I had a brainwave last nigth watching Peter Tatchell on Heretics. He says that sex is a reality and then also goes on to say that there is proven brain structures that align with a persons gender i.e. gender identity has a biological basis.

The thing is, is gender isn't biological its socially constructed. There is no biological basis for gender, only behaviour. A man cannot behave in a feminine way, because he is not a woman. A man can behave in a way that is more socially acceptable for women but it is still masculine behaviour because a man is doing it. Therefore it is impossible for for there to be any biological basis for people who feel different from their sex, because if a male has a certain structure in the brain that is a masucline structure, because it is in a male brain.

The only difference (apart from volume) that I know about is there is some very limited evidence that the thickness of part of the brain covering on the back of the brain (parietal lobe) is slightly thicker for more men than women. Some of this research found that there was a higher incidence in thinner brain covering in this area for same-sex attracted men. So if anyone else knows of anything else can you post it.

Makes me wonder how unanimous the initial decision for having only rainbow badges really was.

Rainbow badges are a political declaration. This has been true for some time now. Anyone pretending otherwise is lying.

They have no place being foisted on anyone, anywhere, regardless of their job. It is an overstep by bosses, coercive and abusive to force anybody to wear political declarations at work.

How fantastic that your employers are finally acknowledging this.

None of this has happened