In recent months, rainbow lanyards have become a focal point in a broader cultural debate. These symbols, primarily associated with support for the LGBT+ community, have been thrust into the spotlight, their meaning and appropriateness questioned by political figures and institutions, including bans in both the Scottish Parliament and UK Civil Service.
Since 2021, I have been part of a research team interested in the institutional use of rainbow symbolism. Our research so far has taken place in the context of higher education. Through a project called ‘Whose Rainbow?’, we have interviewed LGBT+ students, staff, and self-identified allies about their views on the rainbow symbolism and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives in universities. As a queer person steeped in this subject area, the controversy around rainbow lanyards wasn’t a surprise. Over the past decade, the UK has fallen from its position as one of the most LGBT-friendly countries in Europe to a nation increasingly known for its transphobia. This shift has had implications for institutions, including universities, where debates about EDI have become more contentious. Once eager to promote their EDI initiatives, institutions have become more cautious, wary of backlash and accusations of bias. In the HE context, this cautiousness has manifested in various ways: from disputes over what constitutes “academic freedom” and “hate speech”, to withdrawals from programs like Stonewall’s “charter mark” schemes.
Rainbow lanyards, then, have become a politicised symbol of the broader debate around LGBT+ rights and inclusion. In this short blog post, I will outline some of our findings around the ways rainbow symbolism is used in higher education.
Rainbow lanyards in higher education
Rainbow lanyards are used widely in universities. Although broadly meant to signify LGBT+ acceptance, how they are used varies significantly across universities. As such, their exact meaning is unclear. In some institutions, for example, they are freely distributed to anyone who requests one, while others reserve them for members of LGBT+ networks or specific allyship programs. Some universities differentiate between lanyards for LGBT+ individuals and those for allies, though participants noted that these distinctions are often unclear. One participant reported being denied a rainbow lanyard because they were LGBT+ themselves, rather than a (non-LGBT+) ally.
In cases where lanyards are tied to EDI ‘allyship’ programs, there was sometimes, but not always, a requirement to complete training before receiving a lanyard. While most participants agreed that some training was usually better than none, the quality of the training, particularly regarding trans issues, was a common concern among participants.
There was, therefore, a general sense of confusion about what the lanyards were meant to represent. Most students assumed that those wearing rainbow lanyards were themselves LGBT+, which was not always the case. LGBT+ staff expressed concern that this misunderstanding could lead to harmful situations, such as students seeking support from staff who, despite wearing a lanyard, might not be able to provide appropriate guidance.
The performativity of allyship
A recurring theme in our research was the concern that allyship should be about action, not performance. The potential for performativity extended beyond lanyards to other symbols of allyship, such as email signatures. One participant, Bethan, highlighted this issue:
“A colleague has in their email signature: ‘I am an LGBTQ+ ally’. And I just think… I don’t know. I mean, she is. I’m not really querying her credentials, but I don’t know if I’d rush to kind of say ‘I strive towards anti-racist practice’ in my email signature, although I like to think I do. There’s something about the performativity of it that concerns me. An ally is an action – it has to be something that someone is doing in a given moment, not something that is an attribute that someone lives with.”
Bethan also discussed the potential pitfalls of using pronouns in email signatures. She noted instances where individuals who included pronouns in their signatures failed to respect the pronouns of others in their correspondence, rendering the gesture meaningless.
Many more participants shared stories of self-declared allies failing in their basic duties. Charlie described feeling objectified by this performative allyship:
“We are an object which they use to show how good they are […] the Pride flag, and queer people as an extension, has become something like that […] so if people support us, it becomes more about them and how woke they are. And we are just a body which they use to express that.”
Where does this leave the rainbow lanyard?
On one hand, rainbow lanyards have become entangled in a culture war that exploits anti-LGBT sentiment to distract from broader social issues. On the other hand, many LGBT+ people view rainbow lanyard schemes as insufficient. Yet, the current context meant that participants often felt reluctant to criticise even tokenistic efforts, such as rainbow lanyard schemes, in fear of losing what little support these symbols might represent.
Despite the frustrations expressed by many, the feeling wasn’t to abandon the rainbow, and the importance of genuine allyship felt more important than ever. What LGBT+ students and staff desired, however, was not just the display of a rainbow lanyard but tangible action. Allyship, as one participant noted, involves “standing alongside and wherever possible augmenting […] and not replacing the voice of LGBT+ people.” It was also noted that this allyship wasn’t one-directional. Not everyone within the LGBT+ umbrella experiences the same levels or kinds of discrimination, meaning LGBT+ activism needs to be intersectional: anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-ableist, and be part of a fight for fairer working conditions in universities.
Dr Tig Slater is a Reader in Queer Disability Studies at Sheffield Institute of Education. A longer version of this blog post, along with other findings from the Whose Rainbow project, is available at http://whoserainbow.wordpress.com You can also follow the project on Twitter/X @Whose_Rainbow
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