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.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said its policies prohibit any reference to LGBTQ people being “groomers,” a term for would-be child rapists that conservatives have applied to LGBTQ people and allies – especially teachers and doctors – this past year.
The slur has increasingly been used by conservatives to oppose LGBTQ content in schools and gender-affirming care for transgender youth, leading to an increase in threats and harassment.
However, Facebook has continued to make money from at least 150 ads using the slur, even though the media watchdog group Media Matters alerted Meta to the issue. These ads have been seen over one million times, Media Matters reported.
On September 6, Media Matters told Meta about 134 ads using the slur. Meta removed only 40 of the ads from their platform. Now, Media Matters has discovered 19 more ads using the slur. Collectively, the advertisers paid Meta $13,600 to display these ads.
One ad, purchased by the conservative student group Turning Point USA featured a tweet from conservative pundit Candace Owen stating that she has “no patience for this child groomer movement.” The ad read, “Protect your kids.”
Another ad from The Dallas Express, one site of many in a right-wing propaganda network, purchased an ad referring to the anti-trans group “Gays Against Groomers” as an “an organization against the sexualization, indoctrination, and medicalization of children.”
New Jersey’s Holmdel Republican Party ran an ad asking people to support political candidates who “publicly state their opposition to the States [sic] new sex education curriculum which sexualizes our children to advance the agenda of groomers.”
Yet another ad by Republican Illinois state senate candidate Philip Nagel featured him stating that he is “fed up and pissed off with the sick perversion that is being pushed on our children” by “a political class full of pedophiles and groomers.”
Meta has also allowed several ads falsely linking LGBTQ rights to “the supposed normalization of pedophilia in society.”
Kayla Gogarty, deputy research director at Media Matters, told The Daily Dot that Meta’s policies against the slur don’t apparently matter.
“Those are just empty words when we see them turn a blind eye to the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric on their platform,” Gogarty said. “It’s really just another instance of Meta putting profit and engagement over the safety of its users.”
A conservative judge in Texas has issued a ruling against a federal guidance ensuring workplace non-discrimination protections for transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming employees.
In an October 1 ruling, Matthew Kacsmaryk, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, declared that, in June 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidance that incorrectly interpreted the June 2020 Supreme Court ruling Bostock v. Clayton County.
The 2020 Supreme Court decision found that discrimination against gay and transgender employees is a form of sex discrimination forbidden by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
One year later, the EEOC issued a guidance stating that the ruling required workplaces with more than 15 employees to allow all transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming workers to use the pronouns, dress codes, facilities, and healthcare practices matching their gender identities.
In response, the state of Texas sued the EEOC, and Judge Kacsmaryk just ruled in the state’s favor. He ruled that although the 2020 Supreme Court decision declared that employers can’t discriminate against workers for their sexuality or gender identity, it doesn’t protect an employee’s “correlated conduct.”
As such, Kacsmaryk declared the EEOC’s guidance unlawful and said that Texas doesn’t have to follow it. However, the matter is far from settled.
That’s because 20 Republican-led states have also sued the EEOC over the guidance, alleging that the federal agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act by not following the required process for making new rules and also the Constitution’s 10th Amendment by trampling on states’ authority over privacy expectations in workplaces.
Kacsmaryk’s ruling isn’t entirely surprising considering that he once served as the deputy general counsel for the First Liberty Institute (FLI), a legal organization that generally represents conservative Christians, attacks the separation of church and state, and opposes LGBTQ rights.
“Five justices of the Supreme Court found an unwritten ‘fundamental right’ to same-sex marriage hiding in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment — a secret knowledge so cleverly concealed in the nineteenth-century amendment that it took almost 150 years to find,” he wrote.
Bisexual workers report lower rates of workplace discrimination than cisgender lesbians and gay men, a new study has found, but that may be because fewer cis bisexuals are out at work compared to cis lesbians and gay men.
The Williams Institute — a UCLA’s School of Law group that researches sexual orientation and gender identity issues — analyzed survey data collected in May 2021 from 935 LGBTQ adults in the workforce.
Its analysis found that 33.8 percent of gay and lesbian employees experienced at least one form of employment discrimination, namely, being fired or not hired due to their sexual orientation. Comparatively, 24.4 percent of bi employees reported experiencing the same.
The lower overall rates of discrimination may be due to the fact that fewer bisexuals are out at work. Only 19 percent of bi workers are out to all their co-workers, compared to 50 percent of gay and lesbian workers who are out to co-workers.
Only 19 percent of bi workers are out to their coworkers, compared to 50 percent of gay and lesbian workers. Similarly, only 36 percent of bi employees are out to their supervisors, compared to 74.6 percent of gay and lesbian employees.
Bi men and women were also more likely than gay and lesbian employees to report changing their workplace appearance to hide their sexual orientation. Approximately 26.4 percent of bi workers said they had done so, compared to 17.9 percent of gay and lesbian workers.
Interestingly, roughly 60 percent of gay, lesbian, and bi employees said they avoided social events and personal discussions to reduce the likelihood of discrimination and harassment. But when bi employees were out to their coworkers, they reported facing similar or higher rates of discrimination and harassment as out gay and lesbian workers.
The survey also found that gay and bi men typically faced higher rates of employment discrimination, verbal, and sexual harassment than lesbians and bisexual women.
For example, 57.7 percent of bi men experienced verbal harassment, compared to 26.8 percent of bisexual women. While 41.6 percent of gay men experienced verbal harassment, only 29.5 percent of lesbians experienced the same thing. Nearly 50 to 65 percent of all discrimination was religiously motivated, the respondents said.
Workplace sexual harassment was experienced by 34.8 percent of bi men, 33.6 percent of gay men, 29.2 percent of bi women, and 17.4 percent of lesbian women. While 58 percent of out bi men said they had left previous jobs due to workplace discrimination, only 27 percent of out bi women had left previous jobs for the same reason.
These findings came out just before Celebrate Bisexuality Day, an annual day for uplifting the bisexual community, individuals, and their shared history. Today is Celebrate Bisexuality Day.
A 2021 Gallup found that 57 percent of LGBTQ Americans identify as bisexual.
