Rainbow flags no substitute for hard data evidence of LGB employment equality - flags offer nothing but a feeble flapping at the relentless orthodoxy of discriminating against anything which is different

One of the many changes in virtue signalling common in the UK in the 21st century is that the rainbow flag has been hi-jacked in 2020 by the movement to celebrate the NHS and those who work in it, leaving the LGB community uncertain whether their version of the rainbow flag can retain brand distinction.

Scotland's universities were not slow in climbing on the Stonewall-driven bandwagon of the early rainbow flag waving as a high-vis message that of course they were fully paid-up members of the Stonewall bus and very active in support of LGB rights for students and for staff and would, just as soon as possible, eliminate discrimination wherever it was unearthed.

Between 2010-2012, legislation on equality required a bit more than getting on the right bus and waving the right flag during the right month.  Employers were required to gather data on the people who worked for them, by protected characteristic, and publish the information, in an accessible form.  As well as this they were required to publish what they had learned from gathering the data and to report on how they would use what they had learned to improve their performance in eliminating discrimination as an employer.  Easy-peasy, one would think.  Especially at universities which take the finest minds and polish them into even finer minds.  Identifying and eliminating discrimination can be done by mid-morning coffee while solving Fermat's Theorem might take them until late-lunch.  

And yet, in 2016, Fermat's Theorem was solved, while in 2020, Scotland's universities have still not managed to identify and eliminate discrimination against employees who identify as LBG.  It does not help universities achieve their goal on eliminating discrimination when half of the workforce [49.73%] on average across the sector refuses to identify their sexual orientation to their employer.  Two of Scotland's universities do not even publish data on the sexual orientation of their workforce.  From that sort of baseline it can be no real surprise to find that, on close inspection, the colours in the rainbow flag of LGB solidarity have been washed out by the rain of distrust expressed by staff and instead reveals a sector which has surrendered, waving the white flag of apathy and indifference on LGB equality.

We do know that in 2019, Scotland's universities employed 1,378 people identifying as LGB, just over 2.8% of the sector workforce total of 48,933 people.  

What we don't know is whether Scotland's universities think 2.8% of the workforce is evidence that LGB equality exists or that it has not yet been achieved.  Not one of the universities provides a reasoning for what their workforce would look like if discrimination against LGB people were eliminated.  In brief, universities don't know where they are [half the workforce don't trust them enough to identify their sexual orientation] and don't know where they are going [none of them have worked out their optimum profile in terms of people identifying as LGB].  

Most of Scotland's universities have got on the rainbow bus and paid their fare to Stonewall [free flag included].  Trouble is, no one bothered to check the destination board before buying the ticket and grabbing a seat up the back of the bus.  The lack of data on half of the university workforce means the bus tires on one side are almost flat, pulling the bus off the straight line to eliminating discrimination and into a circular journey where universities simply keep arriving back to where they started out from.  Flag waving - a favourite hobby of nationalists across the world - may look pretty, but in the face of the relentless orthodoxy which discriminates against anything which is different, it tends to obscure the reality that nothing has changed.