The Northern Ireland Civil Service has informed officials that the organisation will not be taking part in Pride events this summer, blaming the “current legal and case law context” for the move.
Campaign group the Rainbow Project said the decision had left many LGBTQIA+ staff “feeling hurt, fearful, and wondering if their visibility or equality matters”. Agriculture minister Andrew Muir, who is openly gay, said he was “very disappointed” by the NICS’s stance.
The NICS, which has around 24,000 staff, has had a formal presence at Pride events in Northern Ireland for several years, with senior leadership keen to be seen taking part.
But a recent communication to officials, endorsed by NICS head Jayne Brady and departmental permanent secretaries, said the organisation would not be taking part in events this year.
While the decision does not amount to a ban on civil servants taking part in Pride events, it represents a clear change of tack and distances the NICS as an organisation from parades and related festivities.
The internal communication to officials in Northern Ireland acknowledges the decision will be “disappointing” for some staff. It insists that NICS “remains fully committed to supporting LGBTQ+ colleagues” and “fostering a workplace where people feel able to be themselves and do not have to hide who they are”.
Nevertheless, it adds: “In the current legal and case law context, the NICS is not in a position to participate in Pride 2026 events this year in an official capacity, where colleagues would be identifiable as representing the organisation.
“The position reflects the current legal and case law and should be understood in that context, rather than as a retrospective judgment on previous years.”
The Rainbow Project said in a statement posted on Facebook: “The neutrality of the civil service is vital to ensuring confidence in the service, including in their employment practices and delivery of all government services.
“However, a blanket ban on all staff from taking part in events under the civil service banner – as they have done for years – is not ‘neutrality’. Neutrality is recognising and working to undo the historic and contemporary inequality facing LGBTQIA+ staff and citizens; the alternative, the path now chosen by the civil service, is to allow that inequality to remain unchallenged.”
The Rainbow Project said public bodies do not go to Pride events to endorse every single message or campaign, but to “support equality for all LGBTQIA+ people” and “demonstrate that their workplaces and their services will welcome them with open arms".
“In a country where many feel that the government does not work for LGBTQIA+ people, this function is vital for ensuring that those people still know that services are there for them,” it said.
The organisation urged Brady and finance minister John O’Dowd to reverse the decision on this year’s Pride events.
Speaking to BBC Northern Ireland, agriculture minister Muir said he was “very disappointed” by the NICS’s decision, but said he understood the context.
The Alliance Party MLA said some political forces in Northern Ireland were attempting to “roll back and deny the rights of LGBT people”.
“I'm not going to be standing for that,” Muir said. He pledged to attend Pride events this summer with others from the LGBTQIA+ community.
The NICS has had a formal prescence at Belfast Pride since 2018. Then-head of the NICS Sir David Sterling described leading the organisation’s contingent at that event as his “highlight” of the year in Civil Service World’s perm secs roundup a few months later.
“This was the first time we had taken part and it was welcomed as a very visible sign of our commitment to our LGBT colleagues and to making the NICS a place where everyone can feel comfortable and valued,” he wrote.
Civil Service World sought an on-the-record response from Northern Ireland's Department of Finance, which is responsible for HR issues at the NICS, including an explanation of the “legal and case-law” issues said to have prompted the Pride decision. It had not responded at the time of publication.