Maggie Baska

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Disney theme parks ditch gendered ‘boys and girls’ announcement to promote inclusivity

Disneyland and Disney World have dropped a gendered “boys and girls” greeting as “part of a broader effort” to promote gender inclusivity.

Fireworks shows at Disneyland and Disney World in Florida formerly began with: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dreamers of all ages.”

Visitors were first greeted by the new inclusive message on Thursday (1 July) when the fireworks show was tested at Walt Disney World in Florida, according to the Orange County Register. Disneyland and Disney World fireworks displays had been paused since March 2020 because of COVID, but they made their official return on Sunday (4 July).

A Disney spokesperson told CBS News that the change is “part of a broader effort” towards greater inclusivity within the organisation. The spokesperson added: “It’s not about one or two things.”

A spokesperson for Tokyo’s Disneyland licensee, Oriental Land Company, told Deadline the company has also implemented a more gender-inclusive greeting at the Japanese theme park. The gender specificity in the Japanese greeting has been changed to simply welcome “everyone”.

In April, Disney announced they were aiming to make their experiences, parks and resorts more inclusive. Chairman Josh D’Amaro wrote in a statement: “We want our guests to see their own backgrounds and traditions reflected in the stories, experiences and products they encounter in their interactions with Disney.”

D’Amaro added that Disney was adding “inclusion” as a fifth key component of its customer service.

These ‘keys’ – which also include safety, courtesy, show, efficiency and now inclusion – will guide the corporation as “we interact with guests, collaborate together, create the next generation of Disney products and experiences and make critical decisions about the future of our business”.

D’Amaro explained the inclusion key would also provide “greater flexibility” when it came to “forms of personal expression” for Disney’s thousands of employees. He said this would include flexibility around gender-inclusive hairstyles, jewellery, nail styles, costume choices and allowing “appropriate” visible tattoos.

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Trailblazing trans BMX rider Chelsea Wolfe is going to the Tokyo Olympics

Trailblazing BMX rider Chelsea Wolfe is going to the Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first trans athlete to join the Team USA roster.

Wolfe will travel to Tokyo as a reserve athlete, according to Huffington Post, and will only compete if one of the two qualifying riders – Hannah Roberts and Perris Benegas – drops out.

The athlete, who has spoken openly about her trans identity and her Olympic dreams, said it is still “taking a bit to register”  that she’s going to Tokyo.

Writing on Instagram, she reflected on how she has gone through “so much work” and come “so many obstacles” to get to this point.

“I am positively a different person than when I set off on this journey and I’m so grateful for every experience along the way and I’m so excited and honored to keep working so I’m ready to shred in Tokyo in case I’m needed,” Wolfe wrote.

Both riders are part of the LGBT+ community. Roberts announced her marriage to her wife earlier this year, and Benegas came out as gay in a heartwarming post on social media in May.

Wolfe also shared a glimpse of her Olympics uniform which is, of course, red, white and blue and has her surname emblazoned on the back. She also showed off a mountain of Team USA merch.

Chelsea Wolfe clinched the reserve spot on Team USA after she took fifth place in the final standings at the UCI Urban World Championships earlier this month. The win put her in third overall in the USA rankings, which boosted her into the alternate spot for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

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Olympic frontrunners forced out of Tokyo games over naturally high testosterone levels

Two Namibian sprinters have been blocked from competing in the women’s 400m at the Olympics because their natural testosterone levels have been deemed too high.

Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, who are both cisgender women, were forced to undergo medical assessments while they were at a training camp in Italy.

The tests were requested by World Athletics, according to the Namibia Olympic Committee, and their results “indicated that both athletes have a natural high testosterone level,” a statement continued.

“According to the rules of World Athletics, this means that they are not eligible to participate in events from 400m to 1600m,” officials added.

“Both Christine and Beatrice will be able to compete in the 100m and 200m events,” the statement added.

NBC reported Mbomba ran 48.54 seconds to win a 400m race in Poland on Wednesday (30 June), which was an under-20 world record and the seventh-fastest 400m by a woman of all time, suggesting she may well have taken the gold medal.

Masilingi had the third-fastest time behind Mbomba and Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas, the current Olympic champion.

Namibian sprinters hit by same rule that tried to force Caster Semenya to alter her body

World Athletics has previously been criticised over its rules for athletes with so-called “differences of sexual development” (DSD).

It introduced the current limits on testosterone levels for female athletes in 2018 before they came into effect a year later.

The rules apply for races between 400m and one mile and combined events over the same distances, and forces certain women to artificially alter their natural hormone levels should they wish to compete. The UN has condemned such practices as “unnecessary, humiliating and harmful”.

Most famously, the rule curtailed the career of Caster Semenya, a cisgender woman who is a two-time Olympic champion.

South African 800 metre Olympic champion Caster Semenya. (PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images)
South African 800 metre Olympic champion Caster Semenya. (PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty)

Semenya has launched several legal appeals against the ban, calling the rules unfair and discriminatory. The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected her challenge in May 2019. She appealed the decision to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, which ultimately rejected her case in September 2020.

Semenya filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights in February this year. There has been no ruling yet.

In April, she admitted to the Guardian that the long legal battle has taken “the soul out of my body”. She added that she refused to undergo treatment to lower her natural testosterone level.

“They want me to take my own system down,” Semenya told the Guardian. “I’m not sick. I don’t need drugs. I will never do that.”

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Spain advances landmark trans self-ID bill – but activists say it doesn’t go far enough

Spain has advanced a landmark bill that would allow trans adults to self-determine their gender – but activists say it doesn’t go far enough.

The Spanish government approved the draft bill on Tuesday (29 June). It would allow trans people over the age of 16 to update their gender marker and name on official documents without being forced to get a medical diagnosis.

Currently, trans people in Spain must have a gender dysphoria diagnosis or have been prescribed hormone therapy before they can legally change their name and gender on official documents.

Under the draft bill’s provisions, individuals aged between 14 and 16 would need parental approval to correct their gender marker or name. Those aged between 12 and 14 would need judicial authorisation.

Minors aged under 12 would only be allowed to register a new name, and would need to wait until they are older to update their gender marker.

Equality minister Irene Montero told reporters at a news conference that Spain was “making history” by passing the draft bill. She said the legislation represented a “giant step forward for LGBTI rights and particularly those of trans people” in the country.

She said: “I think we’re not just launching a clear message when it comes to the protection and defence of everyone … but also to Europe as a whole, which is that human rights and guaranteeing the freedom, dignity and happiness of everyone – whoever they are and whoever they love – are the foundations of the European project.”

The Associated Press reported that the bill would also ban gay and trans conversion therapy, bring forward fines and punishment for anti-LGBT+ attacks and overturn a ban that prevented lesbian couples from registering their children under both parents’ names.

Spain’s self-ID bill ‘is a brutal trim’

Mar Cambrollé, from the non-profit organisation Plataforma Trans, told the Associated Press that the bill falls flat in terms of protecting the rights of trans minors under 14 and guaranteeing the rights of non-binary and trans migrants.

“It’s a brutal trim from of what we had demanded for decades,” Cambrollé said.

Spain rejected a more expansive LGBT+ rights bill on 18 May, with the country’s Congress of Deputies voting 143-78.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that this version of the bill would have “upheld children’s self-determination by allowing children and adolescents access to legal gender recognition”. HRW said the bill would have also allowed for non-binary and blank gender markers on official identity documents.

LGBT+ activists have put pressure on the government for months to pass expensive self-ID laws.

Earlier this year, dozens of trans rights campaigners launched a hunger strike to push for better trans rights legislation. Hundreds of people gathered with trans flags at the Congress of Deputies in Madrid, Spain in March, and 70 activists announced their intention to go on hunger strike.

The campaigners changed “trans law now” outside the political building and tweeted pictures from the frontlines. The group promised to continue until the Socialist and Podemos coalition introduced an inclusive LGBT+ rights bill.

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‘Traumatized’ teen ‘stuck at home like a prisoner’ after anti-LGBT+ hate attack

Police are investigating an alleged hate incident after a gay teenager said they were attacked and called a transphobic slur at school.

Emily Wilkinson-Quinn, 14, was left “completely traumatised” following the attack on 20 May, according to their mum Natasha-Jayne Wilkinson.

Emily told The Yorkshire Post that a classmate followed them into their classroom and poured hand sanitiser over their face and clothes.

According to Metro, the boy called Emily a “f*****g t****y” while he carried out the attack.

Natasha-Jayne said that Emily has been bullied ever since they came out as gay last year.

The hand sanitiser incident was a “targeted attack”, she said.

“There were so many witnesses – and there is no doubt that it was gender motivated,” she said.

Natasha-Jayne believes the bully has gotten away scot-free while Emily is “stuck at home like a prisoner”, afraid to go back to school.

The parent has accused the school of not caring, telling the Post that she heard about the incident from another parent.

She subsequently involved the police, saying this was the “first of many times the school have been dismissive”.

The student behind the attack was reportedly only identified after a week, and was suspended for just five days.

Natasha-Jayne told The Yorkshire Post that the family believed the student had been “permanently excluded until Emily passed him in the break room”.

Emily, meanwhile, “desperately wants to go back to school” because they love learning and miss their friends, but they “just don’t feel safe” after the attack.

They added that they feel like they’re “the one being punished” because they are staying away from school.

“When it happened, I was upset, and it made me feel very vulnerable with so many of my classmates watching,” Emily recalled. “It made me feel degraded.”

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They continued: “I’m not an angry person, but I feel so angry about what happened and the fact that nobody at the school seems to care.”

Natasha-Jayne said she has complained to the school’s principal and governing body, and the complaint has been passed onto the Department for Education due to slow response times.

West Yorkshire Police are investigating the attack at Brooksbank School as a possible hate crime. A police spokesperson told The Yorkshire Post: “Police are investigating following reports of a hate incident at a school in Calderdale, which occurred on Thursday 20th May.

“Officers attended the school and active enquiries into the incident are ongoing.

“A hate crime co-ordinator has been in regular contact with the victim and family to offer support following the incident.”

A spokesperson for the Brooksbank School’s headteacher said: “The school is unable lawfully, and does not propose, to comment on an entirely confidential matter which involves the welfare of children.”

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Trans men and non-binary people ‘discouraged’ from life-saving cervical screenings, research finds

Trans and non-binary people experience barriers to accessing cervical screenings due to discrimination, new research has confirmed.

The findings from Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, which were published in the British Journal of General Practice on Tuesday (18 May), surveyed 137 trans men and non-binary people about their experiences with cervical screening.

Among the respondents, 47 per cent reported they were eligible for cervical screening – but just over half (58 per cent) of this group had ever been screened for cervical cancer. Only 53 per cent of those eligible felt like they had sufficient information about cervical screening.

According to the research, trans men and non-binary people faced a range of factors impacting their ability and intention to attend cervical screenings. This included female-focused information, not receiving invitations for screenings and being discouraged or turned away from attending cervical screenings. Some participants felt they would not be able to attend the test because of of medical professionals’ lack of expertise in gender dysphoria.

Almost all the participants in the study, which was conducted in partnership with the Gender Identity Clinic at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, felt that training for healthcare professions would be useful. Participants said this should include LGBT+ awareness training, education on inclusive language and terminology and “reports from those with lived experience of gender diversity”.

The NHS says any person with a cervix between the ages of 25 to 49 should be invited to a cervical screening every three years. All people with a cervix who are registered with a GP and aged 50 to 64 are invited for a cervical screening every five years.

But according to the charity’s report, the NHS cervical screening programme invites only people who are registered as women or female to take part. The researchers said this means trans and non-binary people, who are registered at their GP as male, will usually have to request a test.

Laurie Hodierne, a trans man and doctor, told the BBC that he was re-registered as male by his GP surgery, meaning he could potentially miss out on being flagged for life-saving cervical smear tests.

He said, as a doctor, he understands “how the systems work and the language”, but he still finds it “exhausting” to keep asking for appointments and chase up on results.

“You keep coming up against a brick wall,” Hodierne said. “It’s a healthcare inequality in the sense that you aren’t able to get access to the screening programme in the same way.”

Of the participants in the research, only 61 per cent were aware that being registered with the GP as male meant they are not routinely called for cervical screening appointments.

Rebecca Shoosmith, acting chief executive at Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, said in a statement that accessing the live-saving screening can be difficult for many people but especially for trans and non-binary people.

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TikTok is spreading violent anti-gay; – trans content, report finds

Video-sharing social networking app TikTok’s algorithm is spreading anti-LGBT+ content, according to an analysis by watchdog Media Matters.

The report, published on Tuesday (18 May), found TikTok’s recommendation algorithm – which determines the videos that appear on a user’s page – is promoting content that encourages violence against the LGBT+ community.

According to the TikTok website, the ‘For You’ feed reflects the “preferences unique to each user”. As such, the recommendation system will suggest content based on several factors including what videos a person likes or shares, accounts followed, comments, information in the videos and account settings.

But Media Matters found that liking even one anti-LGBT+ video can lead to a barrage of other homophobic content being added to an user’s ‘For You’ page. The watchdog tested this by clicking “like” on one anti-LGBT+ video. It said TikTok “almost instantly began recommending more”.

The report added: “As we liked similar videos, the ‘For You’ page became progressively tailored to almost exclusively anti-LGBTQ content. In each case, this content was placed on the ‘For You’ page and required no additional searching.”

Media Matters said the videos which TikTok recommended encouraged violence against LGBT+ people, celebrated homophobia and even encouraged destroying the Pride flag.

In one video recommended to Media Matters, a TikTok user encouraged physical violence against trans masculine people. The video featured two animated people fighting with the caption: “Me when I see a Lgbtq Transboy.” One person commented on the video that it was “top tier content” while another said they “did that to someone” in real life.

Media Matters said it also was recommended several videos which encouraged users to burn the LGBT+ Pride flag. The watchdog said many of the videos had “tens of thousands of likes”.

A spokesperson for TikTok told PinkNews: “TikTok is committed to supporting and uplifting LGBTQ+ voices, and we work to create a welcoming community environment by removing anti-LGBTQ+ videos and accounts that attempt to spread hateful ideas on our platform.”

TikTok does remove accounts and videos that violate its community guidelines against hateful behaviour. This includes any content that “attacks, threatens, incites violence against or otherwise dehumanises an individual or a group” on the basis of protected attributes including race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

This isn’t the first time that TikTok has come under fire for promoting controversial content. The app has a pervasive “super straight” community that claims that refusing to date trans people is a sexual orientation. The rancorous term has also spread to other social media platforms.

LGBT+ media advocacy organisation GLAAD recently released a report which found TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are all “categorically unsafe” for LGBT+ people. GLAAD found every single platform is failing to protect LGBT+ users from being harassed and threatened online, and it warned that this was bleeding into the real world.

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Gay Mormon student sent death threats after being labelled ‘anti-Christ’ by professor

A professor at Brigham Young University’s religion department is under fire for labelling a gay student with a Mormon term associated with an anti-Christ.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported Hank Smith, an assistant teaching professor, had been tweeting his thoughts on former parishioners being excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He was defending the church’s decision to oust Natasa Helfer, a sex therapist ousted after she publicly opposed church teachings on masturbation and pornography while supporting LGBT+ rights.

After Smith denounced several women who supported Helfer, Calvin Burke, an openly gay student at BYU and practising Mormon, jumped in to defend the women.

“On behalf of Mormonism, I apologize for Hank Smith,” he said.

In a now-deleted tweet from 23 April, Smith responded to a thread with Burke’s tweet by describing the LGBT+ student as “Korihor”.

In the Book of Mormon, Korihor is a false prophet and anti-Christ who claimed Christ did not exist. God punishes Korihor for his beliefs by making him mute, and a crowd tramples him to death.

Smith’s remarks sparked outcry which prompted him to delete the tweets and issue an apology. He wrote on Twitter: “I do need to apologise for calling Cal what I did. I deleted the reply. That was unjustified and unfair.

“My emotions got the better of me. I am very sorry.”

The Salt Lake City Tribune reported Burke has received public death threats and hate-filled messages after being targeted in Smith’s tweet. It reported Burke, who has since made his Twitter account private, posted that he wanted to “go to school in a place where I can feel safe”.

“And last night was confirmation, albeit brutal, that even with my testimony I am not safe or welcome here at BYU,” Burke wrote.

Carri Jenkins, a spokeswoman for BYU, told The Salt Lake City Tribune that the university has “processes to address personnel matters” but declined to comment on whether Smith’s actions were being reviewed through the process or if he would be punished. She said the incidents are “handled on a confidential basis”, and she “wouldn’t be able to comment on an individual situation”.

LGBT+ students have experienced a range of mistreatment by other students and faculty while attending BYU.

Students can be expelled for not adhering to the university’s honour code, and until last year, it specifically prohibited “homosexual behaviour”. But the university later confirmed its principles against same-sex relationship “remain the same”. The policy flip-flop was branded as “manipulative”, “cowardly”, “incredibly cruel” and one student wrote the university’s actions potentially put queer students in danger.

Last month, BYUtv, which is owned and operated by BYU, agreed to lift its “unwritten” ban on LGBT+ characters in TV shows after Canadian writers and producers publicly condemned the move.

PinkNews has contacted BYU for comment.

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Man stabbed by man shouting antigay slurs on NTC subway train

A man was stabbed with an ice pick in a shocking assault on the New York City subway.

The 28-year-old victim was riding a northbound D train, commuting home to the Bronx, when he was attacked on 5 May, the New York Post reported.

Police said he was attacked after a man boarded the train and sat next to him. The victim moved from his seat because he felt uncomfortable. This action angered the assailant, and he reportedly yelled: “You’re a f****t.”

The victim yelled back: “Suck my d**k”.

Sources told the New York Post that the attacker then stabbed the victim with an ice pick in the stomach before fleeing the train at the West 155th and Eighth Avenue station.

The victim exited the subway at the 161st Street-Yankee Stadium station in the Bronx. He was taken to the Lincoln Medical Center where he is recovering from non-life-threatening injuries.

The New York Post reported the violent attack is part of a recent rash of violence in the New York City subway system.

Another horrific attack happened on the same night – about five minutes after the stabbing – involving an off-duty Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) conductor.

Gerard Sykes, 52, was riding a northbound J train at the Crescent Street station when a man passing through train cars attacked him with a box cutter without warning, according to police.

The New York Post reported Sykes was stabbed in the left eye and ear and suffered from slashes on the forehead. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was scheduled for surgery.

The Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) Local 100 has called for New York governor Andrew Cuomo and US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg to step in and provide more funding for police and additional safety measures for the MTA.

The union also released a video of Sykes’ aunt, Cassandra Sykes, pleading with New York City mayor Bill de Blasio to “do something” to protect the public.

Cassandra Sykes said it is not safe for transport workers or the public to ride on public transportation, and that she is “angry as hell”.

“Something needs to be done,” she said. “We cannot keep living like this day after day, worrying about our people that [are] getting up, coming to work for you. Do something. Please. We are begging you.”

The MTA told NBC New York that the spate of violent incidents is a “stark reminder of why the city needs to surge essential mental health services and police officers ASAP”.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) said it had added more than 600 officers underground. The department also said the MTA and union had been scarring riders with overreaction.

However, governor Cuomo admitted in a news conference on 3 May that he didn’t feel safe when he rides on the subway, according to NBC New York. He said: “I am smart. I am New York tough. Don’t lie to me and don’t play meMan  as a fool.

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Blood donation rules in UK for gay men to be relaxed next month

The NHS will make the questions it asks of all blood donors gender-neutral from next month, allowing more gay and bisexual men to donate blood.

The change, which will come into effect on 14 June, will allow more people from LGBT+ communities to be able to donate, the service said. Under previous NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) guidelines, male donors were asked to disclose whether they have had sex with another man.

The new Donation Safety Check form will ask all donors, regardless of gender, the same questions about their recent sexual behaviour. The NHSBT said the change will mean that eligibility to donate will be based on a more individualised assessment rather than on a risk assigned to a group or population.

Lord Bethell, the minister for blood donation, said in a statement that the change marks a “significant step forward” to making blood donation policy “fairer and more inclusive”, allowing as “many people as possible to make the life-saving decision to give blood safely”.

Under the new changes, those who have the same sexual partner for the last three months or if there is no known recent exposure to an STI or recent user of PrEP or PEP can now donate. The NHSBT said this will mean more gay and bisexual men will be eligible to become blood, plasma and platelet donors.

Donors who have had anal sex with a new partner or multiple partners in the last three months will not be able to give blood but may be eligible in the future. But individuals can donate as long as they have not had anal sex with a new partner or multiple sexual partners in the last three months.

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