Scottish Parliament staff have been banned from wearing rainbow lanyards to show LGBTQ+ pride, or any other accessories that show support for social movements.
Staff or officials who work directly for the Scottish Parliament have been told they must now wear generic purple lanyards when in Holyrood. The rule will not apply to MSPs or their staff.
An email to employees from Lorna Foreman, group head for people and culture, read: “Staff must wear a parliament-issued purple lanyard and remove pins and badges showing support for social movements and towards campaigns or organisations.”
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“Wearing personalised lanyards and/or pins and badges showing support for social movements and towards campaigns or organisations has led some organisations and individuals to consider that the SPS cannot be impartial when supporting the parliament to debate government policy, proposed new laws and current significant societal issues.”
Staff will still be able to wear poppies showing support for war veterans, as Poppy Scotland is a charity recognised by Holyrood.
They can also badges that show their pronouns or trade union membership, first aider badges or badges that show they are Gaelic speakers.
Those who wear sunflower lanyards or badges that indicate they have a disability can continue to do so, but must also wear a purple lanyard.
The Scottish Parliament said the decision would minimise any risk of perceived bias and “help avoid any potential misperception over the absolute impartiality of all Scottish parliamentary staff”.
Rainbow lanyards were introduced in 2017 as part of Holyrood’s diversity and inclusion strategy.
Jamie Greene MSP, co-convener of Holyrood’s cross-party LGBT group, said: “Like flags, lanyard-gate is new identity politics battle. Sadly it seems that in trying to keep everyone happy they’re keeping no one happy.
“The new parliamentary authority rules designed to create fairness and equality have managed to achieve quite the opposite. Either let everyone wear whatever they feel comfortable with, assuming it’s not offensive or illegal, or let no-one wear anything non standard at all.”
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In November 2022 the Scottish Parliament issued an apology after a woman was removed from an equalities committee meeting because she refused to remove a scarf bearing suffragette colours.
