The National Trust has reversed a decision to bar volunteers from public-facing duties at a Norfolk stately home if they refuse to wear rainbow gay Pride badges.
Staff at Felbrigg Hall were offered behind-the-scenes roles after saying they were "uncomfortable" wearing the multi-coloured pins during a "Prejudice and Pride" event marking 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
But after senior management including director general Dame Helen Ghosh defended the move, the land and home conservation charity backed down on Saturday.
A spokesman said: "We remain absolutely committed to our Pride programme, which will continue as intended, along with the exhibition at Felbrigg.
"However, we are aware that some volunteers had conflicting personal opinions about wearing the rainbow lanyards and badges. That was never our intention.
"We are therefore making it clear to volunteers that the wearing of the badge is optional and a personal decision."
The decision to make staff wear the badges at the Jacobean mansion by the Norfolk coast came after a new National Trust film revealed that Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer, Felbrigg's last private owner, who bequeathed it to the nation, was gay.
The Unfinished Portrait, narrated by Stephen Fry, was criticised last week by the godchildren of the unmarried life-long bachelor.
One of them, Katie Spencer, told the Telegraph the film was "outrageous and totally unnecessary".
On Friday, Annabel Smith, the trust's head of volunteering and participation development, said that volunteers uncomfortable with the badges had been offered "the opportunity to take a break from front-facing duties if that's what they would prefer".
She added: "Relating specifically to the Prejudice and Pride programme, we do recognise that some volunteers may have conflicting personal opinions.
"However, whilst volunteering for the National Trust we do request and expect individuals to uphold the values of the organisation."
Dame Helen defended the compulsory wearing of LGBTQ badges in a letter to the Telegraph on Saturday.
In it she said: "Like many heritage organisations, we have taken the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality to tell the story at a dozen or so of our properties of the people who lived there and whose personal lives were outside the social norms of their time.
"At Felbrigg, the generosity of Robert Ketton-Cremer in giving the house to the trust was the result in part of the fact that he had never married and had no heirs to inherit.
"The film and exhibition about his life are sensitive, respectful and celebratory. We believe deeply that our purpose is to make everyone feel welcome at our houses as our founders wanted."
Hours later, the National Trust announced the U-turn.
Margot James, the gay Conservative MP and junior business minister, told Channel 4 News that the negative reaction to the Trust's original decision had been "over the top" and "entirely disproportionate".
But she added: "I think that although I applaud the motivation behind the National Trust's wish to celebrate the 50th anniversary in the way they chose to, I think probably it was an error of judgment to make the wearing of the badges mandatory.
"I think they should probably have done what they are now doing, which is encouraging volunteers to wear them but not making it compulsory."