God Save the Queen...With LGBT Police Guards

by Michael Jones · 2009-09-22 04:51:00 UTC
Topics:

Queen Elizabeth II

The Queen of England is looking for a few good folks to join her squad of elite officers protecting Windsor Castle and Balmoral. And if she has her way, she'd prefer it if those folks came from under-represented populations on her staff, including LGBT folks.

The Metropolitian Police are leading a recruitment drive to add special officers to a unit known as the SO14 ­Royalty Protection Branch. Sounds a little like an American bank or something from the TV show Alias, but it's actually an elite squad of cops who protect the Royal Family as well as visitors to London's royal palaces. The recruitment drive came about amidst concerns that the unit was lacking diversity, especially regarding LGBT officers.

Conservatives blasted the recruitment effort, saying it was nothing more than "window dressing for the sake of political correctness." But diversifying your workforce is actually a repsonsible thing to do. And besides, the protection unit still says that it will hire folks solely upon merit. They would just like to see more applications from under-represented groups, like LGBT folks. There's no harm in saying that, despite what anti-affirmative action zealots think.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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