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.

The T isn't a protected characteristic. I would want a plain badge.

I remember my old Director of Communities finding out I was bi and immediately being horrified that I hadn’t been partnered up with a straight ally. Like, dude…I don’t need some hetero person holding my hand at work to make sure I feel sufficiently supported in my sexual choices 😂. I do quite like bright rainbow colours though, so will always grab a snazzy lanyard. But I do appreciate companies thinking about the support they can offer rather than actively discriminating against.

Why advertise support for certain protected characteristics but not others? Where is the BLM flag? Or the physically disabled flag? Or are you all actively showing that you don't support any other protected characteristics? Because I'd be angry about that rather than sniveling about people not wearing rainbows - and surely, in your industry, homophobia went out with the dinosaurs, so why bother banging on about it in 2025?

I don’t believe you. You must have misunderstood.

I work in a primary school and I refused to wear a LGBTQ+ lanyard on the grounds that I am a professional and it should be assumed that I would not discriminate against a protected characteristic. I don’t wear a badge saying I support pregnancy or that I’m not a racist.

I wouldn’t wear one because I don’t believe in forcing my beliefs on others.

I'm a strong supporter of gay and lesbian rights. I'm much more critical of the transgender movement's agenda, and there are some things in Q+ that I find very dubious indeed.
So no, I wouldn't want to wear a rainbow badge because that implies I'm fine with a diverse range of unrelated causes, some of which I don't support.

Badge wearing, flag waving it's just nonsense.

You're right, you shouldn't ever have had rainbow badges.

I'd probably just get a white badge myself and not get involved in all this badge colour drama.

To some it means " we support you more if you are LGBT" If you are hetrosexual we will suffer you.

Another thread started by an upset op because not everyone agrees with their views 🙄

Are there no grey areas where you work @whatishappening123 ?

You have to be either pro LGBT or anti it?

That seems very divisive to me. And outing people's personal opinions at work raises ALL kinds of problems.

eyeroll...

Exactly. Someone picks one characteristic out of their arse and expects everyone else to comply like sheep.

I'd sooner wear an anti-racism badge than an LGBTQ+ badge.

Pretty much every institution I've worked in has a neutral lanyard in the institution's colour, a rainbow one as an option, a sunflower one as an option, and the odd cool / random / promotional / themed variation.

It is a mistake to interpret or enforce a choice of lanyard as sending a message.

Or Black Lives Matter? Or any other support colours/messages. Why 'just' a rainbow?

We live in a world of forced virtue signaling with poppies on one side and rainbows on the other.

Just wear a uniform if needed, clothes if not, and go about your day.

I call bullshit on this post and what the red badge signifies,

Because trans ideology is using the repression of homosexuals as a Trojan horse for male misogyny and coercion

Well said.

This is why political symbols shouldn’t be displayed on your work uniform.

Well I'd agree there shouldn't be an anti-LGBT’ option - but frankly any service that has that would surely be in hot water - as it's obvioulsy discriminatory.

It's much more likely it is the neutral option but someone doesn't like that option existing and it's them presenting it as an "anti" thing.

If it's come from an offical source in that service the discriminatory terminology being applied to the non rainbow badge - not the plan colour badge itself- should be flagged up as an issue as high as possible within the service as unacceptable.

I doubt it's that the red badge is 'against' LGBTQ, it's probably intended to be the neutral default badge, and there is an option that if staff don't want the default badge and want a rainbow one they can have one.
No public service would be commissioned if they were openly 'against LGBTQ '

Just chuck ALL of the badges in the bin if you ask me. What is the point.

You need to support all your clients.
You shouldn't need a specific badge to show support for one specific group of clients.
People should have neutral badges and then just do their job properly.

I made my work lanyard in suffragette colours.

I get loads of colleagues asking where they could get one.

@whatishappening123 As I was reading your post, I first thought you were saying that people who don't wish to wear a rainbow badge have to wear a red badge signalling that they don't support LGBT rights, and you thought it was appalling that they were being singled out for not conforming to a particular set of beliefs. But if I understand correctly, what you are actually saying is that they have been offered a neutral alternative to the rainbow badge, and that you are upset that they are no longer being forced to wear a visible symbol pledging support for a cause you think they should support. Is that correct?

I think perhaps you need to give a little more consideration to their point of view.

Personally I have zero issues with lesbian, gay or bisexual people, and zero issues with transgender people, providing they aren't harming anyone. Unfortunately over the last decade or so the trans rights lobby has increasingly encroached on the rights of other groups, particularly women.

I believe that trans people are just people who wish they were the opposite sex to the one they actually are. I believe they should be protected against discrimination, but I don't want to have to use the same toilets or changing rooms or rape crisis services as a man just because he believes he identifies as a woman.

Unfortunately, by making the T inseparable from the LGB, the rainbow flag has come to have a certain meaning that goes beyond what it was originally supposed to mean. I am more than happy to signal my support for same sex marriage, for example - and in 2017 like many others I put a rainbow flag filter on my Facebook profile picture to show this - but I do not want to suggest that I agree with the statement that "trans women are women". Because they are not.

For what it's worth I think we need to go back to plain colours and corporate branding on work badges and lanyards. It's completely inappropriate for people to advertise their political views in this way, and even more unacceptable for them to be forced to endorse the political views of whichever person in HR has decreed that everyone will now wear a rainbow badge. And it's always rainbows, isn't it? Never any other marginalised group or worthy cause.

We need to stop bringing our whole selves to work and start just bringing our work selves to work.