Roger
The conditions are where fellow officers are singled out, picked on, abused etc. because of who they are or what they believe - while senior officers allow this type of behaviour to carry on then the sort of groups mentioned are needed to level the playing field.
There are certainly Gay & Lesbian Associations in the law, armed forces, teaching, the civil service, health service, as well as many private sector employers (including my own) - in fact even the Conservative Party has a Gay & Lesbian affiliated section
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2559473.stm http://www.torche.gb.org/index.htm
I do agree that people should join because they want to be police officers and I for one cannot believe that anyone would join for any other reason, however once they have joined and find that their force is riven with institutionally condoned racism and/or homophobia then what are they to do