Hampshire Constabulary has introduced a new dress code that allows women to wear studs but bans male officers from sporting ear jewellery.

Gay officers are said to be angry at the change they see as discrimination.

Force bosses claim that the public does not approve of male police officers wearing earrings.

It's part of the culture that guys wear studs these days. I thought they wanted to open the force to all walks of life Former officer Lee Hunt

Maureen Adamson, the force's director of personnel, said: "Many men who wear earrings are not gay and the policy was certainly not designed to discriminate against gay men.

"We carefully considered the new uniform policy and tried to take the views of our staff into account.

"However, it is also important for us to consider public perception and we felt that members of the public would find it more acceptable if male officers did not wear earrings."

Conservative Portsmouth city councillor and former police officer Lee Hunt said he had been approached by a number of officers unhappy at the new code.

He told BBC News Online: "We are in 2004, not the early 1990s.

'Straight-laced'

"It's part of the culture that guys wear studs these days.

"I thought they wanted to open the force to all walks of life.

"This is sending out the wrong message - 'We are straight-laced. If you are different, you are not welcome'."

But Eastleigh-based police sergeant Julie Fry, of the Hampshire Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Resource Group, said: "We enjoy a good relationship with the force and are consulted about issues that might affect officers or police staff who are gay.

"If we raised this issue with the force, I have every confidence that the matter would be taken seriously and our views would be taken into account."

A spokesman for the Police Federation told BBC News Online: "Each force sets its own code and I believe legislation does allow them to set different standards for each sex.