NHS rainbow badges

[YesIWorkForTheNHS]

As per (shiny new) user name, I work for the NHS. They're bringing in rainbow badges and lanyards at my trust (Google NHS rainbow badges if you want).

Anyone want to help me disentagle / articulate what I think about this?

On the one hand, I want to be inclusive (in the sense that I want everyone to have equal access to healthcare, and remove barriers - real or perceived - to people accessing what we offer). But biological sex matters, particularly in healthcare, and I think we should be held to high standards wrt equality of access for everyone (including women and girls) whether or not we are wearing stripy accessories.

I'm ignoring it for now. But I've had plenty of people tell me how great it is. I have friends at work who know what I believe wrt sex and gender, but I'm not sure I want to have an all-out discussion about my decision not to signal "my tribe" with a badge. The rainbow does not (any longer) represent my beliefs.

Sigh. Spotted on manager's desk today a leaflet about the new rainbow badges and some people in my department are already wearing them. Thankfully I'm pretty sure there's no chance of my manager demanding we all wear them as she is a staunch catholic and very prim. Fortunately we all wear scrubs so in the unlikely event I am ordered to wear one it will accidentally get sent to the laundry the same day. Wouldn't it be a shame if the regional laundry centre found their washing machines clogged up with rainbow badges that had fallen off in the linen?

Anyway, on the plus side, I am finding them a useful warning sign so I know who to be extra careful around with my language.

Someone should tell them that our pets go over the rainbow bridge when they die!

Slight derail , but I lost my dog last summer (not a euphemism, she was lost) and joined Dogs Lost at the suggestion of a kind lady who lived near the wood where she was last seen. Luckily she was found the next day. But I started getting email alerts of dogs lost in my area. And was utterly confused by one who was lost one evening, the next morning I got another email saying she had been found at rainbow bridge. I looked on google maps! Where was this bridge so close to me that I had never heard of?
Anyway, sad to tell, teenage son had forgotten about the elderly dog in the garden on a very cold night and rainbow bridge was in the very same garden. Poor dog. Poor son too, bet he's still getting stick for his dog sitting failure.

So is a rainbow bridge the modern day ‘he’s good to live on a farm’?

Yes LordProf

And I was an adult before 'he went to live on a farm' was explained to me.

We had a cat that we ended up having to send to my sister - who has a farm. No she really does!

Oh god. They've just recently launched an Inclusion strategy at my Trust complete with rainbow lanyards. The ultimate in inclusivity apparently although how this represents disabled people, women or other minority groups I struggle to understand! I was always supportive of the "rainbow branding" until the burgeoning misogyny became clear. I dread to think where this is going...

I’m an adult and I’m confused about the farm. (Is it going to the vet and not coming back?)

Gone to live on a farm is euphemistic for died.

Gone to live on a farm is euphemistic for died.

I grew up on a farm. Happy hunting grounds was the nearest we came to a euphemism. Sunday dinner was more likely. 😂

Jennifer11 lost in laundry is the only answer.

Anyone know who is responsible for this? I'm thinking a FOI to find out the cost of sending all these badges, lanyards and colourful leaflets to every department. Who do we ask? Will the cost be down to individual trusts?

Children in fear of "the rainbow bridge nurse"! Yes, the rainbow bridge nurse is coming for you now!

To me, it signals the medical professionals who reject biological reality...a worrying thing in that profession.

Fanny I think the FOI would go to the individual health Trust. Imagine if they all got one and the numbers were added up....

It’s like a butcher announcing - ‘yes with a little tlc and lots of belief that lamb can be up and running in no time’.

I am laughing at the idea of medical professionals in rainbow lanyards being terrifying to kids who know about the "rainbow bridge". They are coming to get you!

(Except sadly some of them are.)

I was served by someone in Pret wearing a fucking rainbow badge this week.

I don't shop in Pret these days anyway. Not since they used a legal loophole to NOT put all the ingredients on their products (to retain their 'freshly made on the premises by our own cuddly elfs' image) and 2 customers died.

Facing a rainbow would have done it though.

How wrong I was. What should we see today but my manager proudly sporting a rainbow badge on her lapel! Fact is, it's a total lack of critical thinking and absence of understanding.
Later when I went to coffee a group of about 8 were discussing them. A gay colleague thinks they are a total waste of money, but he's wearing one anyway because they are pretty. He also thinks Pride is rubbish. Another colleague ordered one because it came with a free pen but she won't wear the badge. No one can recall any incident of homophobia including the gay colleague, and no one feels the need to advertise their inclusivity.
No one mentioned the T word. I really don't think anyone has made the connection, they think it's all about the LGB.

Anyway I have done an FOI to ask how much has been spent on this tat. Will report back later.

Not seen them advertised in NHS Fife. Is it an NHS England secondary care thing?

One guy (Gay) proudly wore the lanyard but at the moment it has to be requested by those who I suppose are open to it and can be approached/whatever. No one else is interested (we have enough to concern ourselves with thanks) and even if we got a free pen that would be as crap as all the other pens.

When you think what the NHS has spent on a crap computer system, the new phones in our hospital which our department cannot use (cos they are crap) , the last thing we need is rainbow coloured knick knacks!

I actually cringe when I go in shops at the amount of rainbow coloured jumpers.

Hmm, it is spreading

www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/nhs-grampians-pride-is-leading-way-for-lgbt/

When it was this year’s Grampian Pride, one of the wards at Royal Cornhill Hospital had their own Pride party in the ward.

Cornhill is the Mental Health hospital.

If I saw a health-care worker with rainbow badge and lanyard I would assume they were supporters of Stonewall and all they stand for. There are some areas of healthcare where if I couldn't ask for a female only nurse or doctor I would rather not have the health care. The rainbow emblem would make me find it much harder to ask.
Irrational I know. But such is my fear.

Yes I agree it would make gender critical women hesitate about asking for same sex clinician in case they were advised twaw. It would be good if the LGB Alliance can reclaim the rainbow from Stonewall.

I think the rainbow is irretrievably poisoned. Let Stonewall have it, the world is gradually waking up to what this symbol is coming to mean. My response to an hcp approaching me with a rainbow badge would be to explain that I was concerned they were wearing a political symbol stating their alignment with anti woman activism and homophobia.

I'm willing to bet most hcps will be horrified to realise that the badge carries such connotations.

They had a straight allies scheme at my work. If you were a straight ally you could have a rainbow lanyard to mark yourself out as someone who could be approached or would be supportive to an LGBT colleague. You could also add it to your email signature. I was a straight ally and I was fine with this. It does take away the pressure of 'should I come out or not' away from colleagues.

We also had similar schemes around mental health and disability though not the lanyards and for groups for Women and BAME workers.

They were starting to talk about allies putting pronouns in their signatures. Fortunately, I left before that could be imposed. The focus was more and more on trans issues as well since we were trying to increase our Stonewall Champion score.