Rugby-based LGBTQ+ group condemns legal challenge accusing police of bias for attending Prides

Out-Out Groups, an LGBTQ+ organisation based in Rugby, Warwickshire, has spoken up after a legal challenge was raised accusing the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) of bias for participating in Pride events. The group have condemned the attempt by Fair Cop and its founder, Harry Miller to launch a judicial review against the IOPC on the grounds that attending Pride events breaches its duty to remain politically impartial.

Out-Out’s founder, Jude Dowling said: “Once again, LGBT+ people are being politicised rather than being political.

“Our existence is not a campaign or an ideology; it is a fact of human diversity. Yet Mr Miller’s latest legal challenge seeks to portray the simple act of inclusion, walking in solidarity at Pride, as political bias.”

Uniformed officers, apart from those on duty, have already been barred from attending Pride envents in Northumbria by North Yorkshire Chief Constable, Tim Forber.

While data often shows that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to lean towards socially liberal parties, due to their policies supporting the community's rights, the community is found across the political spectrum with, as of August 2025, 75+ publicly out MP across parties (59 Labour, 5 Conservative, 2 Green, 1 Independent, 8 Lib Dems, and 1 Scottish National Party); showcasing that the existence of LGBTQ+ people is not political.  

Jude Dowling adds that Fair Cop’s argument ‘collapses under even light scrutiny’.

“Comparing Pride participation to membership of a religion, as Mr Miller has done, is an entirely false equivalence. Religion is a belief system people can adopt or renounce; being LGBT+ is not. There are over seven billion people worldwide who now either chosen to belong to a religion or have chosen to leave one.

“By contrast, decades of peer-reviewed scientific consensus confirm that sexuality and gender identity are not choices and cannot be changed through so-called ‘conversion therapy’. To equate that immutable identity with a voluntary belief system is both factually wrong, morally questionable, and potentially dangerous.

“The Equality Act 2010 protects both religion and sexual orientation equally under the same umbrella of ‘protected characteristics’, but it is vital to understand the distinction: one protects freedom of choice, while the other protects freedom to exist.

“It is this confusion that groups like Fair Cop exploit when they claim that Pride, a celebration of equality and human rights, is ‘political’. Pride exists because LGBT+ people continue to face discrimination, harassment, and violence. Until that ends, Pride is not political: it’s necessary.

“To suggest that the police and oversight bodies should not publicly support those they are duty-bound to protect is not neutrality; it is neglect. The IOPC, by attending Pride, is not endorsing a political cause. It is fulfilling its responsibility to demonstrate visibility, approachability, and equality under the law – precisely what public confidence in policing demands.

“In truth, if Mr. Miller’s campaign appears so intent on preventing institutions from showing solidarity with marginalised people, perhaps it reflects something deeper.

“When someone fights this hard to stop others from being visible, it often says far more about them than it does about us. If Mr Miller is struggling to reconcile his own feelings about difference, we invite him – genuinely – to join us at Pride. There, he’ll find community, understanding, and the freedom to be himself without shame or fear.”