The Home Office is holding ten Pride events for staff this month, including a scavenger hunt, and staff are told to read ‘This Arab is Queer’ in an LGBT book club, GB News can reveal.
The Home Office’s LGBT network, Spectrum, a group for gay and trans civil servants, is hosting ten events this month to celebrate pride, including two coffee mornings, a “scavenger hunt/picnic” and events discussing the history of pride, allyship, and whether you can “be LGBT+ and Jewish”.
All ten events are held during working days, however, the Home Office stresses they are not in “core working hours”.
Connor Tomlinson, a commentator from the centre-Right website the Lotus Eaters, told GB News: “The fact that there is an LGBT activist network in the Home Office demonstrates how indefensibly corrupted Britain's institutions have become.”
“They should be hard at work identifying and deporting the more-than-a-million illegal immigrants who have remained in Britain since 1998, when exit checks were abolished.”
“They should be enacting the will of ministers, rather than frustrating deportation processes. Instead, they waste taxpayer cash on celebrating the various grievances of intersecting racial, gender, and sexual preference identity groups.”
“How can a body be trusted to represent the interests of Britain when it pushes anti-White racism, and celebrates medical interventions which have sterilised children?”
He continued: “The Home Office should have its budget stripped to only the essential purposes, and sack any activists who think celebrating the incoherent idea of Islamic Queerness is more important than doing their job.”
One description of an event on allyship states that “We often get asked the best way to be an ally of the LGBT + community. In this workshop we'll be exploring how you can be an ally and answering any questions you may have.”
Home Office civil servants who wish to join the LGBT scavenger hunt are told to meet outside of Home Office HQ in Westminster.
On the Home Office intranet, available to all of the department’s civil servants, Spectrum wrote a blog about pride featuring criticism of government policies on LGBT issues.
Spectrum wrote: “Whilst there have been many gains in rights for the LGBT + community in the UK over the last 50+ years, there are still many issues that we deal with.”
“Trans people face ever growing waiting lists in healthcare; non-binary people lack legal gender recognition; hate crime statistics reflect increases in homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime over the last decade; conversion therapy remains a legal practice in the UK; and online harassment of LGBT + people is an ever growing issue.”
Spectrum also hold a monthly LGBT book club, in which Home Office staff are told to discuss the following books, “Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya”, “Being Ace: An Anthology of Queer, Trans, Femme, and Disabled Stories of Asexual Love” and “Connection by Madeline Dyer and This Arab is Queer by Elias Jahshan”, among others.
Anna McGovern, a journalist and commentator, said: “The core responsibility of the Home Office is to ensure the safety and security of the nation, manage immigration effectively, and uphold law and order.”
“Diverting significant time and resources towards hosting ten LGBT-focused events and a book club during working hours is a clear departure from these primary objectives.”
“It is proof that LGBTQIA+ initiatives will be pushed at every opportunity possible, even at the highest level of governance.”
“I expect this to only continue; and the only way we can push back is by holding those responsible to account. Do your job and serve your country.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “These activities are being undertaken outside of core working hours, and in no way distract staff from their day-to-day roles where they deliver crucial work for the department.”
