Wiltshire Police in the United Kingdom are facing legal action from a group who argue that police should not show support for LGBTIQA+ events or rights.
A judicial review is looking into the police’s attendance at a Pride festival in Swindon where police had a stall which included police wearing shirts that had the Pride flag as well as rainbow lanyards.
Speaking to British newspaper The Telegraph, lawyer James Gardner, who is representing Sarah Phillimore from the organisation Fair Cop, said police should not be seen wearing Pride related motifs.
“A stall was run by staff members wearing police T-shirts with Pride motifs and Progress lanyards, displaying Pride and Progress flags and handing out Pride stickers to the public.” he said, arguing that it could be interpreted as support for a political cause.
“Pride is a political cause and Wiltshire Police should not be supporting it. They need to be called to account for this unlawful conduct.” Gardner said.
Superintendent Conway Duncan defended the police’s approach, saying officers attended only as part of an “official policing response.”
“A policy decision was made that on-duty attendance at the Swindon and Wiltshire Pride march was only permitted for officers and staff where it forms part of the official policing response. Our officers were rightly undertaking their roles – including community engagement – in a visible capacity both inside and outside the event.”
The police have declined to give any further comments as it is an ongoing legal process.
Last year a UK High Court case found that the Northumbria Police had overstepped the mark when they displayed transgender flags on police vehicles.
In his finding Justice Linden said, “It is not hard to imagine circumstances in which the officers in question might be called on to deal with a clash between gender-critical people and supporters of gender ideology, and therefore situations where the former had cause for concern as to whether they were being dealt with impartially.”
The ruling only applied to the Northumbria Police force, but ‘gender-critical’ activists are now targeting other police services across the UK.
