Responding to comments from the Equality Commission to the News Letter about the PSNI LGBT+ Network’s offer to help officers who “identify as LGBT+” with revision classes and notes for promotion exams TUV MP Jim Allister said:
“The guidance from the Equality Commission, understandably, appears to be relatively straightforward. As it is unlawful to discriminate against employees on the grounds of sexual orientation it is patently untenable that the PSNI funded LGBT+ Network should be permitted to offer this coaching expressly excluding straight members of the force.
“The PSNI are frankly inviting a member of their staff to take a discrimination complaint to an industrial tribunal.
“The fundamental to any promotion process is that all applicants should be on an equal footing. Clearly the equality of the process is corrupted if some people, on the basis of their sexuality, receive special tutoring.
“The endorsing of the LGBT Network by the senior management team of the PSNI means that they have corrupted their own process for promotion. The PSNI email system has been used to disseminate information about the coaching. The PSNI computer system will, I understand, be used in the delivery of the training. That’s not something they should be facilitating but something they should be seeking to stamp out.”