Bourbon whiskey brand J&B has brought people to tears with its heartfelt Christmas advert about trans acceptance.
The Spanish advert follows an elderly person who initially borrows their wife’s lipstick, before putting together their own make-up kit and escaping to a bathroom to apply a full face.
As the Christmas advert progresses we see them grow more accepting of themselves, and although heartwarming already, somehow manages to became even sweeter.
Toward the end of the advert, their trans granddaughter arrives, initially introduced as Alvaro but they immediately recognise a kindred spirit and shares their make-up with her.
When they both walk back out to the rest of the family, Alvaro’s true name, Ana appears on the screen and what follows is a beautiful moment of intergenerational bonding and family acceptance.
In a statement, the brand explained: “It is a Christmas story that tells the beautiful story between a grandfather and his granddaughter, and how the love that unites them is so great that it overcomes any prejudice or barrier that may separate them
“This story is a reflection of acceptance, respect and above all tolerance.”
The marketing manager of Diageo, J&B’s parent company, said it wanted to give “visibility to a reality that thousands of people face, including the LGBTIQ+ collective, who seek a safe space to be and show themselves openly.
“But also for families, who often also suffer the absence of those loved ones who, due to their gender identification or sexual preference, are not present at the parties.”
And of course, this heartwarming advert has not gone unnoticed with many praising the beauty in its simplicity.
Member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, Pablo Echenique, shared how the ad “made this straight cis man cry”.
He added: “Its existence shows that the need of protecting trans people’s rights is widely accepted in our society.
“It is baffling that there are political parties that cannot understand this.”
Other viewers also shared their thoughts, with one person writing: “Showing the world our true self can be frightening, but having someone supporting us makes it, if not easier, a little lighter.
“As a trans person, I really loved this video. Having loved ones accepting us made me happier and really connected to them. It’s beneficial to everyone.”
Even TV icon Lorraine Kelly was moved by the commercial, saying she found it “sad and also hopeful”.
Professional punching-down expert Dave Chappelle is set to get more Netflix specials despite accusations of being anti-trans.
The self-proclaimed “cancelled” comedian is once again set to join the world’s biggest streaming platform for a night sure to be filled with anti-trans comments, controversial statements and some jokes – if he can spare them.
in an interview with The New York Times, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said the company would order Chappelle comedy specials “again and again” despite the backlash.
“We’re just trying to be the most exciting entertainment company and more,” Hastings said, seemingly confusing the words entertaining and controversial.
“That special was one of the most entertaining watch specials we’ve ever had.”
Netflix bought Chappelle’s highly controversial comedy special The Closer for $24.1 million, releasing it to the platform in 2021.
In response to the show – which saw Chappelle make cutting-edge and topical Clifford the Big Red Dog jokes with the same reverence as a nine-year-old recanting jokes from a 2006 Family Guy box set – Netflix employees protested his “transphobic” gig.
Multi-millionaire Dave Chappelle then went on a campaign of crying that his special, which was watched for a collective 339 million minutes on a streaming platform with roughly 210 million paid subscribers, was all of a sudden “cancelled”.
It was so cancelled, in fact, that Chappelle – whose career must have been in tatters judging from how he was talking about his “cancellation” – only landed one single Netflix special.
But Chappelle was also called a “bigot” by a 16-year-old in a school – which planned to name a theatre after him – so, swings and roundabouts.
Dave Chappelle has routinely butted heads with the LGBTQ+ community
His run-ins with the LGBTQ+ community didn’t start there. The comedian has routinely made the transgender community the butt of his jokes, while also using AIDS as an oral sting to cap off his already repugnant bits.
The self-proclaimed TERF said that the trans community “hate my f**king guts” during his 2019 special Sticks and Stones while making an “LGBTQ+ alphabet” joke that was already as sour as summer-day milk years before Chappelle decided to make it a supposed slam dunk in a multi-million dollar comedy set.
“No matter what you do in your artistic expression, you are never, ever, allowed to upset the alphabet people,” he said. “You know who I mean. Those people who took 20 per cent of the alphabet for themselves. I’m talking about them Ls and Bs and Gs and the Ts.”
He then went on to say that transitioning is a “f**king hilarious predicament” and, while many competent trans comedians have certainly shown that to be true, Chappelle apparently thinks it’s the often mentally-crushing dysphoria within a trans person that’s just too funny.
He represented this perceived hilarity by doing a racist impression of a Chinese person and declaring that’s “how I feel inside”, because if a modern Chappelle joke doesn’t end in shock value, then it’s just a very rich, very powerful comedian making fun of a routinely discriminated, murdered, and vilified group with an extremely high suicide rate for an hour or two.
Anti-LGBTSQ+ slurs have skyrocketed on Twitter, despite Elon Musk’s claims to the contrary, a new study has found.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), along with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other groups, found that anti-LGBTQ+ remarks have risen by at least 1,458 times a day.
Additionally, offensive comments against Black people had risen to 3,876 times a day, according to reports from The New York Times.
“Elon Musk sent up the Bat Signal to every kind of racist, misogynist, and homophobe that Twitter was open for business,” CCDH chief executive Imran Ahmed said.
Despite this, Musk claimed that hate speech impressions were “down by a third from pre-spike levels” in a 24 November tweet showcasing a graph from a Twitter presentation.
However, aside from failing to report specific underlying numbers, many criticised Musk’s interpretations of the figures, with one asking how Musk is defining hate speech.
“The transphobia in my mentions is the worst it’s ever been,” one user said. “I guess that’s fine though, since you don’t consider that hate speech anymore.”
Another wrote: “Yeah, hate speech will go down when you stop considering hate speech to be hate speech.”
The Anti-Defamation League urged Musk to “dedicate resources” to policies that attempt to mitigate hate speech on the site, especially after the mass layoffs that the company experienced.
“His actions to date show that he is not committed to a transparent process where he incorporates the best practices we have learned from civil society groups,” ADL vice president Yael Eisenstat said.
“Instead, he has emboldened racists, homophobes, and antisemites.”
But things quickly became dire after Musk brought back several individuals who had been previously banned for posting hateful speech, including former president Donald Trump.
The influx of problematic content, along with the debacle surrounding Musk’s proposed Twitter verification model which caused abrupt chaos on the site before being shut down, prompted advertisers to reduce their spending on the platform.
This caused Twitter spokespeople to reassure advertisers in a Wednesday (30 November) statement reading: “Brand safety is only possible when human safety is the top priority.”
Marks & Spencer has defended yet another attempt by ‘gender critical’ activists to troll the store’s gender-neutral changing rooms.
The British retailer – which sells food, clothes and home goods – informed customers on social media in August they are welcome to use any changing room in stores as they are inclusive of all genders. This has, however, been company policy for several years.
The move, predictably, outraged people online who claim to be concerned about women’s safety and used the move to share anti-trans rhetoric about changing rooms.
A group calling itself “Women’s Rights Network” posted about the trans-inclusive campaign on Twitter on Saturday (26 November).
The account rallied against the retailer’s lack of single-sex changing rooms and cried out against a theoretical situation in which a male customer ‘opened the curtain’ while a young person was getting their “first bra fitting”.
Marks & Spencer changing rooms have lockable doors on private cubicles, the store confirmed.
Marks & Spencer allows customers ‘the choice of fitting room’
“In all of our stores, we have fitting rooms located within our womenswear and menswear departments and each is made up of individual lockable cubicles to ensure every customer feels comfortable and has the privacy they need,” the retailer wrote on Twitter.
“While they are mainly used by customers of that gender, as an inclusive retailer and in line with most other retailers, we allow customers the choice of fitting room.”
Marks & Spencer’s policy has been in place for three years, according to Retail Gazette. Also, the retailer’s response has been used before when the gender-neutral changing room policy was previously the subject of an anti-trans pile-on on social media.
In August, the official Marks & Spencer Twitter account replied to a tweet in which someone was concerned about the company’s fitting room rules. In response, M&S said they are an “inclusive” retailer that allows anyone to use their fitting rooms regardless of the sign on the door.
“While they are mainly used by customers of that gender, as an inclusive retailer and in line with most other retailers, we allow customers the choice of fitting room,” the official Marks & Spencer Twitter account wrote.
Marks & Spencer’s gender-neutral changing room policy has been around for three years. (Getty)
This sparked calls for a boycott with #boycottMarksandSpencer trending on Twitter. Many retailers with trans-inclusive policies have been threatened with boycotts, but the stores are still doing fine regardless of anti-trans voices declaring they will never use them again.
Another so-called women’s rights grassroots campaign Twitter account also took umbrage with the policy. WRN West Country claimed on Twitter to have “spotted” leaflets attacking the inclusive rules, which it described as an “access all areas” changing room policy, in the undergarments of mannequins at one M&S in Bristol.
Twitter took longer to review hateful content and removed less of it in 2022 compared with the previous year, according to European Union data released Thursday.
The EU figures were published as part of an annual evaluation of online platforms’ compliance with the 27-nation bloc’s code of conduct on disinformation.
Twitter wasn’t alone — most other tech companies signed up to the voluntary code also scored worse. But the figures could foreshadow trouble for Twitter in complying with the EU’s tough new online rules after owner Elon Musk fired many of the platform’s 7,500 full-time workers and an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation and other crucial tasks.
The EU report, carried out over six weeks in the spring, found Twitter assessed just over half of the notifications it received about illegal hate speech within 24 hours, down from 82% in 2021.
In comparison, the amount of flagged material Facebook reviewed within 24 hours fell to 64%, Instagram slipped to 56.9% and YouTube dipped to 83.3%. TikTok came in at 92%, the only company to improve.
The amount of hate speech Twitter removed after it was flagged up slipped to 45.4% from 49.8% the year before. TikTok’s removal rate fell by a quarter to 60%, while Facebook and Instagram only saw minor declines. Only YouTube’s takedown rate increased, surging to 90%.
“It’s worrying to see a downward trend in reviewing notifications related to illegal hate speech by social media platforms,” European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova tweeted. “Online hate speech is a scourge of a digital age and platforms need to live up to their commitments.”
Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment. Emails to several staff on the company’s European communications team bounced back as undeliverable.
Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last month fanned widespread concern that purveyors of lies and misinformation would be allowed to flourish on the site. The billionaire Tesla CEO, who has frequently expressed his belief that Twitter had become too restrictive, has been reinstating suspended accounts, including former President Donald Trump’s.
France’s online regulator Arcom said it received a reply from Twitter after writing to the company earlier this week to say it was concerned about the effect that staff departures would have on Twitter’s “ability maintain a safe environment for its users.”
Arcom also asked the company to confirm it can meet its “legal obligations” in fighting online hate speech and that it is committed to implementing the new EU online rules. Arcom said it received a response from Twitter and that it will “study their response,” without giving more details.
Tech companies that signed up to the EU’s disinformation code agree to commit to measures aimed at reducing disinformation and file regular reports on whether they’re living up to their promises, though there’s little in the way of punishment.
ONE, a condom and lubricant company, is distributing the first and only condoms approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in anal sex. After the approval, ONE partnered with Walmart on new packaging to highlight the FDA clearance.
Walmart stores in the U.S. will exclusively carry the ONE Backdoor pack, a condom kit that is a “butt stuff approved” sampler of the different styles available from ONE.
The pack will feature products like the ONE Vanish, which is 25 percent thinner than the standard ONE condom. It works best with the ONE Move lube, according to the company. The ONE Super Sensitive line — thin, smooth condoms with 50 percent more lubricant — will also be included in the kit. Also included are different samples from the MyONE Custom Fit, which includes condoms of various sizes to accomodate appendages of different shapes and girth.
The Backdoor Pack’s Vanish and Sensitive condoms are sized via the company’s MyONE size method, which is based on popular purchasing habits and is slightly shorter and wider than a regular condom. The included FitKit measuring tool will also help buyers find their perfect cut.
Walmart will also carry 12-count packs of ONE Vanish and ONE Super Sensitive condoms, both with packaging that highlights “FDA cleared for anal use.”
The popular ONE Move silicone lube and the Oasis Silk lubricating lotion are also available in Walmart stores.
Don’t look for Salvation Army bell ringers outside your local Macy’s this holiday season.
The department store company didn’t renew its contract with the Salvation Army, a spokesperson told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “We reevaluated our cause and community work and made a significant commitment to driving societal change by empowering underrepresented youth in our community,” the spokesperson said. “With this shift, we made the difficult decision to not continue our partnership with the Salvation Army this holiday season.”
The Macy’s rep did not say explicitly if the decision was related to the Salvation Army’s fraught relationship with the LGBTQ+ community. The Salvation Army, a conservative Christian organization, has been accused of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in its provision of services — something it has denied strongly. It also has stated it does not discriminate in employment.
But its churches do not marry same-sex couples, a topic a Salvation Army spokesman tried to pivot away from quickly in an Advocate interview in 2017. In 2012, it joined other faith groups in denouncing marriage equality as a threat to religious freedom, but its leaders have said since then that it is not involved in any efforts to undermine marriage equality.
Macy’s is an LGBTQ-supportive company. It has a perfect 100 score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. It has advertised in LGBTQ+ publications and featured same-sex couples in its ads. Its 2018 Thanksgiving Day parade featured a performance from the Broadway show The Prom that included a same-sex couple kissing, a first for the parade. It has worked with LGBTQ+ organizations such as HRC and the Trevor Project.
Its charitable work is in keeping with its recently adopted “Mission Every One” statement, which emphasizes “grant funding to advance human rights, racial justice, workforce development and economic opportunity in partnership with organizations including the Human Rights Campaign, National Urban League, Hispanic Federation and the Asian American Business Development Center,” according to Macy’s website.
A Salvation Army spokesperson told the Inquirer, “The Salvation Army is incredibly thankful for the many years of Red Kettle partnership with the Macy’s Corporation. Macy’s decided not to renew our annual Red Kettle agreement in 2022 to focus on other nonprofit causes at this time. We are grateful for all our continuing national and local Red Kettle partners and the generosity of the public to help us help their neighbors in need, which is greater than ever this season.”
The Advocate has sought comment from both Macy’s and the Salvation Army and will update this story if it receives a response. In interviews in 2015 and 2017, the Salvation Army denied any discrimination in its provision of services, which include drug and alcohol recovery services in the U.S., shelter for the homeless, disaster relief, assistance for former prisoners reentering society, and more.
The group’s national spokesman, Lt. Col. Ron Busroe, told The Advocate in 2017 that he’s less concerned that charges of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination will affect donations than that they might discourage LGBTQ+ people from seeking help. “My greater concern is not whether they’re donating, but if they’re saying the Salvation Army won’t help you because you’re gay,” he said.
The Salvation Army once had a statement against same-sex relationships on its website but no longer does. Also, it removed links to conversion therapy groups several years ago. Its site now states that it does not engage in “unlawful discrimination or harassment” on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or other characteristics in its employment practices or provision of services.
In the fews days since Elon Musk closed his deal to buy Twitter, far-right users have started to celebrate what they hope will be the ability to freely use homophobic and transphobic rhetoric and make threats on the social media platform.
On Saturday, former UFC fighter Jake Shields, who has over 340,000 Twitter followers, appeared to be testing the boundaries of the company’s moderation apparatus by posting a photo of a drag queen smiling at a young drag performer with the caption, “This is a groomer.”
Shields added, “I was suspended for this exact tweet a month ago so we will see if Twitter is now free.”
The word “grooming” has long been associated with mischaracterizing LGBTQ people, particularly gay men and transgender women, as child sex abusers.
On Friday, conservative podcaster Matt Walsh, who describes himself as a theocratic fascist, lauded Musk’s acquisition of the company and encouraged his over one million followers to start misgendering trans people.
“We have made huge strides against the trans agenda,” Walsh tweeted. “In just a year we’ve recovered many years worth of ground conservatives had previously surrendered. The liberation of Twitter couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Now we can ramp up our efforts even more.”
“Laws are changing and public opinion is changing,” Walsh, who held an anti-trans protest in Nashville, Tennessee, attended by thousands last month, continued. “We have done all of this intentionally. It was all part of the plan we laid out and executed.”
The day before, within hours of Musk’s Twitter acquisition, the far-right account Libs of TikTok — which has over 1.4 million Twitter followers and has largely built its following by mocking liberals — tweeted out a post with the word “groomer” written over a dozen times.
When asked by NBC News to comment on the post, Libs of TikTok said in message: “Hi Matt, unfortunately you have pronouns in your Twitter bio which automatically tells me I can’t take you seriously. Good luck with your story!”
The far-right celebration comes as homophobic and transphobic slurs and rhetoric have had a resurgence within Republican politics this year. Conservative lawmakers and pundits have repeatedly accused supporters of LGBTQ rights, critics of legislation like Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law (dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law) and drag performers of trying to “groom” or “indoctrinate” children.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment concerningseveral of the more high-profile tweets that included anti-LGBTQ slurs or sentiments.
Since the start of his takeover bid in April, Musk has emphasized that he will allow forlooser rules over what people can say on the platform. In May, he announced that he would repeal the permanent ban on former President Donald Trump’s account. (The former president was banned from the site in the days following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.)
For Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic who is trans and has over 57,000 Twitter followers, the effects of Musk’s takeover were immediate. Caraballo said she and several of her friends received a flood of transphobic messages within hours of Musk’s takeover Thursday.
“You have several multimillion-follower accounts basically declaring open season on trans people,” Caraballo said. “They’re immediately taking glee and joy in the fact of bullying trans people on the site, and they think that, that’s going to be OK now because Elon’s in charge.”
“This was never about free speech,” she added. “This is literally about their ability to bully people on the site, harass them and then direct their followers who they know are going to launch death threats.”
LGBTQ people already face disproportionate rates of online harassment. Roughly 1.5 million, or 15 percent, of 10 million online posts analyzed between 2016 to 2019 were transphobic, according to a 2019 report by anti-bullying organization Ditch the Label and its analytics partner, Brandwatch.
The report did, however, find that larger social platforms like Twitter and Instagram had the “lowest ratio of abuse to general discussion around trans issues, suggesting that people are using these platforms to spark a conversation and educate.” For Twitter specifically, the report found 12% of the discussion volume was transphobic, compared to 78% for YouTube.
Google, YouTube’s parent company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Researchers from the Anti-Defamation League found that throughout 2020 and 2021, 64 percent of LGBTQ respondents said they experienced online hate and harassment, compared to 46 percent of Muslims, 36 percent of Jews and about a third of Black, Latino and Asian American respondents.
Caraballo admitted that “there really hasn’t ever been great moderation on Twitter.” However, she added, the company has better policies than most social media companies, including Gab and Parler, which are popular among conservatives.
“My worry is what we’ll see a gradual degradation of the moderation policy,” she said. “Even if nothing formal is changed, I can imagine in coming weeks or so it starts to get increasingly worse as changes and policies are starting to be implemented internally.”
Despite concerns, Musk vowed on Thursday that he would prevent Twitter from becoming a “free-for-all hellscape” and make it “warm and welcoming to all.” Musk also announced on Friday that the company would be “forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints” and will make “no major content decisions or account reinstatements” before the council convenes.
By Sunday, however, he tweeted and deleted what many described as an anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theory about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. The unfounded theory, which originated from a website that has a history of publishing false information, suggested that Pelosi’s assailant was actually a “male nudist hippie prostitute.”
Caraballo said that going forward, her biggest fear is that most Americans will become “exhausted” by what she predicts will become a “nonstop drumbeat” of anti-LGBTQ tweets.
“In a lot of ways, apathy is probably the most dangerous emotion at this point,” she said.
A Thai businesswoman and transgender advocate bought the Miss Universe Organization for $20 million, making her the first woman to own the global beauty pageant in its 71-year history, her company announced Wednesday.
Anne Jakkapong Jakrajutatip, the CEO of the Thailand-based media company JKN Global Group, is a reality TV star in her home country, where she has appeared on local versions of “Project Runway” and “Shark Tank.” She also helped establish Life Inspired for Transsexual Foundation, a nonprofit transgender rights group.
Jakrajutatip said her company’s acquisition of the Miss Universe brand is a “strong, strategic addition to our portfolio.”
“We seek not only to continue its legacy of providing a platform to passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and traditions, but also to evolve the brand for the next generation,” she said in a press release.
The Miss Universe Organization, which was co-owned by former President Donald Trump between 1996-2015, was bought by Endeavor’s IMG in 2015. The organization will continue to be led by its current CEO, Amy Emmerich, and president, Paula Shugart.
Miss Universe, Harnaaz Sandhu of India, waves after being crowned Dec. 12 in Eilat, Israel.Amir Levy / Getty Images file
Following the deal with the JKN Global Group, Endeavor President Mark Shapiro said in a statement that he’s “proud of the progress the organization has made in becoming a more inclusive and powerful platform where women can advance both their business objectives and their cause-based work.”
Emmerich agreed, saying that JKN Global will help to further grow the organization.
“Despite having recently celebrated the organization’s legacy of more than 70 years, we are just getting started,” she said.
The Miss Universe pageant, which started in 1952, broadcasts in 165 countries. The pageant featured its first transgender contestant in 2018, when Miss Spain, Angela Ponce, competed for the crown.
The right-wing political views of the new head of Grindr are causing some users to delete the popular gay dating and hookup app.
The tag #DeleteGrindr is trending after news incoming CEO George Arison, 44, previously tweeted he was a conservative who supported some of the positions of then-President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Arison, who is gay, starts his new job October 19.
“FYI I am a conservative & agree with some Trump policies,” Arison wrote in a since-deleted tweet on February 28, 2020.
“Should totally run for President,” he wrote of Youngkin in a retweet dated February 24 of this year.
Arison appeared to express support for DeSantis in another retweet from January. In the retweet, he wrote that the man who championed the “don’t say gay” law was “not ideal” but agreed the Republican governor was “better-suited to advance a new, more comabtive [sic] and populist party.”
Users on social media responded quickly, calling out the past statements from Arison.
Another user called out Arison’s support for Youngkin.
Others indicated they were ditching Grindr.
Arison came to Grindr from e-commerce marketplace Shift Technologies, where he was CEO and cofounder.
In a statement to The Advocate about the issue, Grindr centered on Arison’s identity as a gay man, husband, and father.
“George is an out gay man, proudly married to his husband and the father of two children,” a Grindr spokesperson said. “George is passionate about fighting for the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ people around the world.”
