Christian Group Wants to Ban Civil Servants at Pride Parade
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| 2025 London Pride |
A Christian campaign group has brought legal action against the government over civil servants’ participation in LGBT pride marches.
The Christian Institute believes officials are breaking their duty to impartiality on controversial political issues, by taking sides in debates about gender.
Officials have encouraged staff to attend marches, funding branded t-shirts and banners. High Court papers submitted by the organisation state this is “taxpayer-funded participation” in events.
Simon Calvert, deputy director of the Christian Institute, has told Premier Christian News that the actions of civil servants in their official capacity “undermines people’s confidence that they are acting impartially.”
“The law requires civil servants to be impartial. It requires them not to favor particular interests. And yet, every year, the civil service decides to allocate funding to actively encourage civil servants to attend Pride marches, paying for the banners and the civil service pride t-shirts that they wear, and encouraging them to do it officially on behalf of the civil service.”
“The pride movement represents a very particular set of political ideas, especially focused around transgender ideology, gender self-ID, puberty blockers" he added. "It’s all stuff that's very unpopular with the public, and yet the civil service is officially participating in it."
The claim specifically references a march in Middlesbrough in September, where staff were reminded that they were “representing the civil service and must act in accordance with our rules and code”. Officials were identified for their branded items.
Calvert said that Christians and “sex realists” in the civil service have been “made to feel very uncomfortable” as they believe managers have adopted an “official stance” to support LGBT pride.
The judicial review follows a successful challenge where Northumbria Police’s “uniformed participation” in pride marches was deemed to have broken a police oath to “act with impartiality”. The Christian Institute is being represented by the same lawyers who won the High Court case in July.
A Government spokesman said: “Our full focus is on delivering for working people - raising their living standards, reducing hospital waiting lists, putting more neighbourhood bobbies on the beat, and growing our economy.”
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