Having walked this same road with some fear and some success have come to believe its about power and control of managers and managerial fear of being held accountable for your behavior by their superiors i.e. fear of losing their own paycheck.

Key sources of decision making information would be your non-profit's mission statement and policies. May shake out to the conflict between a dress code and a cultural diversity policy. Or, management's fears that a customer/client will somehow/someway be offended vs. standing tall behind the agency's cultural diversity policy. To me there is a parallel to what an agency would do should a racist customer/client refuse to work with an employee that was of a different race then theirs. A solid agency would dismiss the customer/client and support the diversity of their employee.

Internet is full of examples of success and failure. One university professor had his clan attorney write his public university employer and threaten a dicrimination suit. Other employees have won lawsuits for being prohibited from wearing cultural attire. The "distraction" card is the usual one management plays.

In my case, I found that wearing kilts to work has been an example of how my nonprofit agency stands by their cultural diversity policy. But, I had to go to the extent of filing an in-house grievance for my bosses boss to back off. Only reason I knew about the grievance proceedure was that the H.R. lady told me about it and sorta/kinda urged me to do it.

Our agency proceedures route grievances (perhaps better named appeals of management decisions) through the immediate supervisor, then the CEO, then a board committee, and finally to a full board. My supervisor wouldn't touch the grievance and sent it to the CEO who's response was still intimidating, "You can wear whatever the (insert a common Anglo-Saxon four letter word for an pleasurable activity) you want, I don't have time for this (insert a common four letter Anglo-Saxon word for excrement).

Bottom line he didn't want to send it to a board committee and he most certainly wasn't pleased with my choosing to use the suggested grievance process even though agency policy makes it clearly a right of all employees.

While I do my job well and have over 8 years with the agency Arizona is a Right to Work state meaning anyone can be fired at any time for any thing. I've since chosen to back off on my kilt wearing at work...but now wear them about once a week at unexpected times (my own form of power and control) and for sure on special cultural occasions. On the special occasions I tell folks what the occasion is to reinforce the cultural connection.

And, I too have kilt information on the outer door to my office - including the Proscription Act and a pleat view 8x10 of myself hiking kilted with the caption "Value Difference" which seems to be a current watchword of cultural diversity.

Inside my office I have the painting of the Scottish soldier and the Indian to reinforce my connection with Native clients. I have framed AmeriKilts poster of me in a kilt with my full back sea turtle tattoo. I have a few of those clan tartan/ancient art postcards for my clans. And I have a Macdonald tartan throw over the back of my two seater couch.

While my office is not a mini-Scottish museum there are a number of articles that proclaim my heritage. Since best practice suggestions in my profession urge up front acknowledgement of cultural differences between myself and clients of different cultures my office helps bring that point to the fore so it may be addressed.

Its been over a year now and my CEO and I seem to have struck a balance that is tolerable to us both and non-disruptive.

It is a most fearful process. I finally had to suck it up and decided that if I had enough cajones to wear a kilt I could have enough cajones to walk through agency proceedures for disagreements with management decisions.

Been many posting along these lines over the years. Bottom line for each of us is our own situation - each is different with different risks. If your agency receives Federal funding you have a bit more on your side.

Good luck, have fun, but don't be stupid.

Ron