British National Trust ends restriction on volunteers who refuse to wear rainbow badges

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>The National Trust in Britain has reversed a decision to bar volunteers from public-facing duties at a Norfolk stately home if they refuse to wear rainbow sexual equality symbols&period; Staff at Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk were offered behind-the-scenes roles after saying they were&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;uncomfortable&&num;8221&semi; wearing multicoloured badges and lanyards for a &&num;8220&semi;Prejudice and Pride&&num;8221&semi; event marking 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality&period; The decision came after a new film made by the National Trust revealed that Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer&comma; the hall&&num;8217&semi;s last owner who bequeathed it to the nation&comma; was gay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The land and home conservation charity said on Saturday that wearing the badges was now &&num;8220&semi;optional and a personal decision&&num;8221&semi; for volunteers and staff&period; A trust spokesman said&colon; &&num;8220&semi;We remain absolutely committed to our Pride programme&comma; which will continue as intended&comma; along with the exhibition at Felbrigg&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;However&comma; we are aware that some volunteers had conflicting personal opinions about wearing the rainbow lanyards and badges&period; That was never our intention&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;We are therefore making it clear to volunteers that the wearing of the badge is optional and a personal decision&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The change followed an announcement on Friday by Annabel Smith&comma; the trust&&num;8217&semi;s head of volunteering and participation development&comma; who said that volunteers uncomfortable with the badges had been offered &&num;8220&semi;the opportunity to take a break from front-facing duties if that&&num;8217&semi;s what they would prefer&&num;8221&semi;&period; She added&colon; &&num;8220&semi;Relating specifically to the Prejudice and Pride programme&comma; we do recognise that some volunteers may have conflicting personal opinions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;However whilst volunteering for the National Trust we do request and expect individuals to uphold the values of the organisation&period;&&num;8221&semi; Dame Helen Ghosh&comma; director general of the National Trust&comma; had defended the original decision in a letter to Saturday&&num;8217&semi;s Daily Telegraph&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She said&colon; &&num;8220&semi;Like many heritage organisations&comma; we have taken the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality to tell the story at a dozen or so of our properties of the people who lived there and whose personal lives were outside the social norms of their time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;At Felbrigg&comma; the generosity of Robert Ketton-Cremer in giving the house to the trust was the result in part of the fact that he had never married and had no heirs to inherit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The film and exhibition about his life are sensitive&comma; respectful and celebratory&period; We believe deeply that our purpose is to make everyone feel welcome at our houses as our founders wanted&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed086b69eac">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings&period;push&lpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;divId&colon; 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed086b69eac'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;format&colon; 'belowpost'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; document&period;readyState &equals;&equals;&equals; 'loading' &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;document&period;addEventListener&lpar; 'DOMContentLoaded'&comma; window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; else &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback&lpar;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;script>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>


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