Mini muffins + lanyards = LGBTQIA+ advancement don't ya know

[aweegc]

I'm changing some details.

I recently saw on a company's internal pages a gay man in a heavily male dominated industry being told that the company virtue signalling he was calling out wasn't virtue signalling, but important for advancing the cause of LGBTQIA+ people in said company. He'd had no problems, nor heard of any problems related to homophobia during his 22 year career.

Lanyards and mini-muffins were listed - in all seriousness - by someone involved in advancing The Cause, as being part of the improvement/advancement made in the company on behalf of this group.

I always thought lanyards were a throw away gesture. I'd never considered anybody actually thought they advanced anything, or were a big step in anything. But it seems they're seen by some as a significant part of the advancement of LGBTQIA+ rights! My flabber was gasted!

I did wonder, if you're so discriminated against and so mentally harmed by discriminatory people that lanyards and mini muffins can seriously help you, then wouldn't it be that you don't actually have much of a problem to start off with? And surely that's so obvious you'd be embarrassed to actually state them as solutions - you'd be looking for something more..significant?

Or have I got it all wrong and we should we be sending lanyards and mini muffins to the women in Iran? What about the Uyghurs?! I used to bake lots of mini muffins. Perhaps I should start up again?

Any other "significant advancements" you've come across?

Lesbian friends avoid any professionals with rainbow lanyards and stickers and laces because they tend to be worn by well-meaning but uninformed people anxious to show how progressive they are. They've complained about rainbow people patronising them and assuming they understand what it's like to be LGB. They call them Stripy Straights, the rainbow counterparts to Spicy Straights.

😂 Stripy Straights is brilliant!

They're missing the mini muffins though. The lanyard's magical powers are only activated by mini muffins 😉

But why mini muffins? Seems to me that if mini muffins advance The Cause then normal sized muffins would advance it even more. Or even ginormous muffins - think of the good they could do.

One non binary acquaintance loves theys pride event at work, because theys work puts out huge amounts of rainbow covered muffin/buns.
This empowers my acquaintance by making they feel special, valid, seen and gives them access to lots and lots of sugar

I read your post but unfortunately my brain has blurred out your words as blah blah lemon mini blah lemon blah muffins.

Thanks

I think biscuits because 'bi' or jaffa cakes and tunnocks teacakes which straddle the cake/biscuit binary.

I don't understand about the mini muffins.

Googling tells me it's either small muffins or attractive children 'too young to date'.

With the gender ideologists, I can't decide which ones you mean.

Ooh, attractive children too young to date, @Brokendaughter . How very worrying. And nauseating.

I'm going with the other meaning.

My NHS friend says the rainbow lanyards are to signify that particular member of staff is particularly lgbt friendly.
Whaaaaat? We've has the equality act for 12 years now it should be taken as a given that employers and employees should uphold it.

That's all that's needed in the workplace particular a large public sector one like NHS.

It shouldn't be for individual employees to have a symvol/marker of their compliance worh the EA.

I like your thinking! 😂

Sugar..and food colouring! Maybe that's the secret ingredient!

It was the rainbow lanyard that peaked me.....in 2020 to take ownership of a rainbow lanyard (in my trust) we were required to sign a pledge. The pledge was superficially benign.. be nice and dont be mean... only active pledge was to comply with LGBT forum/guidance. So this was 2020 and I thought I should really have a look what I was pledging to. The LGBT forum last posted minutes on the trust website in 2015....around the time we won the 'accolade' of stonewall diversity champion status. Thought to myself now this is a bit rum....Best check it out further....and then i fell into wonka land. Our trust is an absolute mess on this issue. So rainbow lanyard was the beginning of the end for me.

Rainbow merch is big business innit.

Pre-Covid I used to wear a sunflower lanyard at work. I have a hidden disability and I wore it so that others who were 'in the know' knew they could approach me in confidence for help. Disability is often not spoken about at work and it can feel deeply shameful to be struggling and not know how to ask managers for help.

Then Covid outed the whole sunflower lanyard thing and I never bother with it now. I did get people coming to me for help who said they felt better talking to me because they saw the lanyard. As a manager myself, I was then able to guide them and assist their own line manager.

Sooo....lanyards may have been a thing once that was useful to some people. But it's been overexposed and utilised for woke virtue signalling rather than to genuinely help anyone.

If I come across any kind of rainbow - lanyard, laces, badge - on an employee eg doctor’s surgery, I immediately put them in the “so open minded that their brain has fallen out” category, and ideally ask to speak with a non-rainbowed person who hopefully puts their work above their virtue signalling.

Yes. I understand that the NHS has spent thousands of pounds on rainbow lanyards. Great use of public money 👍

See I think it might be different at different Trusts but we were given rainbow pin badges after completing LGBT+ training, granted it was about 6 years ago but that was actually a really interesting course about things like barriers to health care from when homosexuality was criminalised and that some patients especially those who were older could be fearful of being 'outed' to a Dr. Also someone with dementia may not always know they can now be openly gay despite having lived like that for the last 20 years etc. So it was actually more about showing you understood and some common sense stuff around not using assumptive language, I.e so you have a partner/who do you live with? And basically not assuming people are straight.

I'm old enough to still associate St George's flags and Union Jack flags with the BNP and neo-nazi/far right ideology. Anything 'rainbow' now gives me similar 'don't make eye contact with the zealots' vibes.