The irony here is the government gets the fare money. The tocs are paid by the government to run the service. How they spend that money is up to them.
This most of this thread bar a few posts is very negative towards everyone being accepting of all whoever they are.
I didn't see the same level of outrage after SWR had a naming ceremony for a 444 recently. That will also have cost more than a pound.
I would not go as far as negative, but not positive.
Why do train companies have to engage in this nonsense imported from America? Such stunts only increase division and disharmony, by giving everyone a label and seeing them only though the lens of their gender, race, disability etc, rather than as individuals. Why is this particular group of people any more worthy of support than any other minority?
We seem to be so bombarded by the creation/recognition of different minorities that I am beginning to feel left out. I wonder if one day I will discover i am part of a minority so I can feel I "belong".
The same percentage as left handed people then... where is our flag? We don't get one because our identity has nothing to do with our genitalia, what we want to do with our genitalia and how we want to be addressed as while using our genitalia.
It says a lot about the atomisation of society when you have to hang your entire identity off of one metric, then browbeat everybody else into celebrating with you.
Whaaat. You mean you get it out in public and use it - for writing !.
I am ambidextrous (not joking) so I can use either hand for tasks. It was noticed I used either hand for tasks depending on which side of me was nearer. Mind you I only write with my right hand due to years of practice. If I use my left hand I have flashbacks to when I was so young I could hardly form letters - not unpleasant but really vivid.
My point is I don't care that I am ambidextrous. People don't notice except when friends noticed I played football with the other foot !. So we have to highlight every difference in people to what depth - where does it end ?.
Mumsnet-tier response.
"Everybody I disagree with is insecure". Brilliant logic on display there.
NO - I agree with you, so leave me alone. Sorry couldn't resist it !.
But left-handers have experienced centuries of repression, including being burnt at the stake - why aren't they represented in government, or on the sides of trains?
The fact is that the vast majority of the modern population doesn't care whether you're black or white, gay or straight, etc. - but quite a few do, not unreasonably, object to their taxes being spent on trying to 'convert' the few racists/homophobes/whatever who do still exist - because that's a lost cause not worth wasting effort on, and trying to force them to accept something they're deadset against is only going to harden that mindset.
I would agree it won't change the bullies in society. All it does is make the vast majority of us who don't have an opinion on something get weary.
I worked in management for 25 years. When I started it was virtually impossible to be openly gay in most working environments. For gay people that has changed a lot, for trans people it can still be quite difficult.
What SWR are doing here is a simple and effective way to demonstrate that they are an employer that embraces diversity and inclusion. Look at the picture in #1: the train livery is for and about the people in the picture, and their colleagues, both present and future.
Customers will benefit, because SWR as an employer needs to recruit and retain staff from the widest possible talent pool. Most of those employees, present and future, are going to be millenials and genzees, not grumpy old boomers. Some of them are going to need reassurance that SWR is a safe and welcoming place to work, and that's who SWR are aiming at with this message.
There are three reasons that make this a particularly good time for SWR to be doing this:
- they are hopefully coming to the end of a period of difficult industrial relations, and this is part of engaging with existing staff and rebuilding morale
- demographic changes mean that the employment market is very tight and this event, by demonstrating that SWR is an employer that embraces diversity and inclusion, will have a positive impact on recruitment and retention
- the recent Casey Report on the Metropolitan Police has shone a spotlight on what it is like in an institution that does not embrace diversity and inclusion, and every sane employer is going to want to differentiate themselves from that.
I can see the point that this livery and publicity might tap into a section of potential employees that otherwise feel excluded. But is this the best way to do it ?. It is creating friction and the danger is if that friction gets more public than the original message (the livery) was trying to achieve. How about recruitment ads directed at the LGBTQ society (their magazines, forums or meetings). Same for Intersex.
I worked with an openly gay gent. We used to have a good laugh. Think attractive young woman walking into the space and blokes getting a bit too interested - staring is nowadays intimidating. He was certainly not shy !. Really nice guy but I felt a wee bit sorry for attractive males !. But then how do we express ourselves ?.
Intersex people are born with multiple primary sex characteristics, eg, testes and ovaries.
Are left handed people routinely threatened with violence for being left handed? Is the government threatening to ban the discussion of left handed existence in schools? Is the press vocally opposed to left handed people?
No. But most of us in society are unaware of the prejudice intersex people might get.
I presume that, compared to gender identity, intersex is harder to hide. I am thinking of, for example changing rooms in schools/swimming-pools.
Someone who is biologically male but feels they are female in their mind can hide it by going to the male changing rooms.
Someone with non binary genitalia has no choice as the conflict is plain to see.
Is that right ?.
Been a bit of an education this thread has.
Do you think there should therefore be a train painted in a livery supportive of immigrants to the UK, who seem to fit all three of the criteria?
Not that I have any issue with this livery - it's a good thing to do to show inclusivity and, whatever our views and opinions on LGBTQ+ rights, I would hope that everyone on here can agree that inclusivity is a good thing - and that it will extend to all corners of society, and to all marginalised groups*.
*To make it clear, I'm talking about equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome, which is something that can and will probably never truly happen.
It will get to the point that no two trains in the same TOC will have the same livery. There will be no identity.
The problem with this sort of virtue-signalling is that everyone knows that once management has got tired of it and moved on to the next corporate band-wagon, the bad old railway culture will reassert itself and things will be no different.
Oh yes - I can see this colour scheme trundling around for decades looking very tired and forlorn. Think a couple of years looking clean then a decade rather negative. Its all yet another fad.
