Latest news with #inclusivity
BBC News
2 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Pride flag moved in Matlock after Christian bookshop complaint
A council in Derbyshire has removed a Pride flag following a complaint from a Christian Town Council said it had received "communication" that the rainbow flag could be "forcibly removed" from outside Cornerstone Christian Bookshop in Dale Road so action was taken to relocate the the flag to another central location to avoid confrontation or council said the decision was "purely from a health and safety standpoint" and it stood in "full support of the LGBTQIA+ community".In a statement, the trustees of the bookshop said they were happy to fly flags but declined to fly the Pride flag as a "matter of conscience and in keeping with our faith and scriptures". Last year, the council needed to replace a number of flags and approved a budget to add Derbyshire and Pride flags to complement the existing Union Jacks flown in the town's mayor, Marilyn Franks, told the BBC the idea was to make the town centre more colourful and welcoming to visitors. The various flags were put up randomly above shop fronts but the Christian bookshop, which has been open since 1994, complained. The council's decision to move the flag prompted criticism on social deputy mayor Ashley Orwin, who is gay, said the complaint and the flag's removal had supercharged support for the town's first Pride event which is taking place in June next year."This has actually sparked a really positive response because it has shown how inclusive and accepting the community is," Orwin said. "There's been a moment of complaint and it spiralled into a bit of a social media thing. But the resounding thing from it is people support and love our community."As a gay man in public office, this has only been a positive thing... this has sparked our first Pride [event] in the Peaks in Matlock that's going to happen next year."In a statement, town council leaders said they "deeply regret" any upset the removal may have caused. "The move was made without malice or prejudice, and we sincerely apologise to any individuals or groups who were hurt by this decision," the statement said."We recognise how symbolic the flag is, especially during Pride Month, and we acknowledge the impact this action had, regardless of intent." In a joint statement, the store's trustees said: "The bookshop is an inclusive organisation that wants to share the Christian faith with everyone and we do not want to advocate or condemn anyone on the basis of their belief or sexual orientation."As a Christian bookshop we would have been delighted to have flown the Derbyshire flag, the flag of St George or the Union Flag. "Unfortunately, due to lack of initial consultation on the matter, we had to decline to fly the flag allocated to our shop, as a matter of conscience and in keeping with our faith and scriptures."Many of the other faith communities in Britain would also have declined to fly this flag. Fortunately, we are blessed in this country with freedom of conscience and freedom of religion legislation, enshrined in the Equality Act of 2010 which allows religion or belief as a protected characteristic. "We are therefore very grateful for the speedy removal of this flag when we raised our concern to the council."
Telegraph
5 hours ago
- General
- Telegraph
Primary school children taught about the 300 flags of Pride
Schoolchildren are being taught about 300 different LGBT pride flags and the sexualities and gender identities behind each of them. Leaflets handed out at primary schools by the charity Swindon and Wiltshire Pride claim there are more flags representing sexuality and gender identity than there are for countries. The material, signposted by the local council on social media, goes into detail about a 'small selection' of 29 varieties. It says: 'While some might think [300] is too many, it's all part of a drive to be more inclusive of the expansive breadth of identity within the community'. Along with the rainbow LGBT Pride flag are a variety of offshoots, from the 'intersex-inclusive Pride flag' to the 'polyamory Pride flag' and even a black and white 'heterosexual flag' for straight people, which it says can include transgender people. The materials make up part of a free annual support guide produced by the charity, which also points to websites providing advice on controversial practices such as wearing a 'binder to reduce apparent size of breasts', the use of cross-sex hormones in under-18s, and information on 'fetish spectrums'. Parents of children at the primary schools told The Telegraph their concerns had been ignored by the local Labour council. The three double-page spreads about Pride flags describe the identity each is meant to represent, what the colours mean and when the flag was created, if known. For example, beneath the pink, purple and green 'trigender Pride flag', the charity explains that 'trigender is a gender identity in which a person switches between or among several genders, including a third gender', which may change depending 'on the individual's mood or environment'. The 'omnisexual' flag explainer says the term refers to someone attracted to all genders and sexualities, and that it was created in 2015, but that the creator 'never explained the exact meaning of the colours'. The polyamory flag, which represents people who engage in multiple romantic and sexual relationships at once, is described as being comprised of 'blue for openness and honesty, magenta for desire, love, and attraction; purple represents a united non-monogamous community. Gold represents the energy and perseverance and the white represents possibility'. One mother, a former teacher, said the guide being given out in primary schools was 'really concerning'. 'Obviously the polyamory one, encouraging children to have multiple sex partners, they shouldn't be sexualising children,' she said. 'In the guide itself, under education, it states it is 'for schools, teachers, and students'. 'A couple of sentences down, for example, it says 'raise awareness of the lesser known identities across the fetish spectrum',' she added, saying that was 'inappropriate'. Among the other Pride flags are 'genderqueer', 'demiboy' and 'demigirl', 'pangender', 'abrosexual' and the 'straight ally flag', which places the rainbow colours in the shape of an 'A' on top of the black and white heterosexual flag. Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy at human rights charity Sex Matters, said the flags 'draw children in' and 'suggest that children need to find themselves on the list'. 'They recruit children into the world of sexual orientation and gender identity, which is inappropriate and unnecessary. Encouraging very young children to wonder about their gender or sexual orientation in this reckless way creates safeguarding risks,' she added. 'Some of these flags promote the false belief that a child can be born in the wrong body, which is deeply unsettling for young people. They should be protected from such misguided and harmful ideas, but instead, adult concepts are being pushed at them, disguised as harmless fun.' The controversial material has been the subject of complaints for ignoring the Cass Review, which has resulted in changes to the NHS's treatment of gender-questioning children, but schools have not been bound by the same rules. Despite being published almost a year after Baroness Cass, a paediatrician, published her final recommendations and raised concerns about the use of cross-sex drugs in children, the guide continues to point towards resources promoting them. The guide also includes a page on 'top tips for gender equality in the classroom' with advice on mixing up he/she/they pronouns in books, jumbling up toys so all genders have an equal opportunity' to play with them, and allowing children to change their gender identity in class. 'Be inclusive of a child who identifies as another gender to the one they were assigned at birth,' it says. 'Refer to the child in the gender they prefer. Your modelling of how this child is included and referred to will be paramount to the attitudes of the other children and their families.' It also says: 'Use gender-neutral language when referring to children, e.g. instead of saying 'Choose a boy', say 'Choose a friend'.' Another page has a diagram of the 'genderbread person', a gingerbread figure, which says: 'Gender is one of those things everyone thinks they understand, but most people don't. Gender isn't binary. It's not either/or. In many cases it's both/and. A bit of this, a dash of that,' it reads. Under identity, it tells children that identity 'is how you, in your head, experience and define your gender, based on how much you align (or don't align) with what you understand the options for gender to be.' The mother and former teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed her concerns had been waved away by Jim Robbins, the council's chairman. She said she had also met local MP, Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, who has made enquiries to the council and is awaiting a response. The mother said: 'My question was, why are schools and public health not in line with the Cass Review? How can school policy be so divorced? 'She [Ms Alexander] said I was 'the only person in my constituency that has raised these issues',' the mother said. 'I know there are more, but even if [it was just me], we are talking about child safeguarding, child safety needs to be investigated.' A spokesman for Swindon and Wiltshire Pride said: 'We believe in 'Pride 365': a year-round commitment to celebrating identity, raising awareness, and supporting LGBTQIA+ people in our community. Throughout the year, we engage with a wide range of local events, organisations, and educational settings to build understanding and foster inclusion. 'During this Pride Month, we were invited into a small number of local schools to support their curriculum-led work around diversity and LGBTQIA+ relationships. Our support guide includes helpful information, links to support organisations, and content written for all audiences – it contains no sexual content whatsoever. 'It is disheartening, though sadly not surprising, to face unfounded attacks or misrepresentations of our work. As a visible LGBTQIA+ charity, we know that some individuals may seek to undermine the progress we are making in fostering a more compassionate, inclusive society. 'We remain proud of our mission and grateful to the many people, schools, and communities who continue to stand with us.'
FF News
7 hours ago
- Business
- FF News
Ecommpay Launches Free Accessibility Pack to Help Merchants Boost Website Accessibility
ECOMMPAY has introduced new merchant website accessibility tools to help businesses improve inclusivity and meet global accessibility standards. The free Accessibility Pack provides essential resources for optimizing eCommerce websites for users with disabilities. Created as part of the ongoing inclusivity programme, Ecommpay for Good, the Ecommpay Accessibility Pack is a vital starting point for businesses looking to enhance their own digital accessibility and ensure their services are available to everyone. It offers a blend of essential guidelines, practical advice and valuable training opportunities. 'We understand that making a business fully accessible can feel like a big project, however, even small, thoughtful changes can make a profound difference,' said Miranda McLean, Ecommpay Chief Marketing Officer. 'We have learnt so much from our own accessibility and inclusivity journey, and this pack shares our vital learnings to help our merchant partners take those crucial first steps with confidence, fostering a more inclusive e-commerce ecosystem. At Ecommpay we are fully committed to continuing the conversation around accessibility in e-commerce and look forward to supporting merchants on this important journey.' The Ecommpay Accessibility Pack includes: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Overview: An introduction to the latest WCAG standards, which focus on making navigation and interaction more accessible. These guidelines benefit users with diverse disabilities and significantly improve overall user experience. An introduction to the latest WCAG standards, which focus on making navigation and interaction more accessible. These guidelines benefit users with diverse disabilities and significantly improve overall user experience. Practical Tips for Creating an Accessible Website: Developed in collaboration with the Digital Accessibility Centre, this guide walks merchants through the basic steps of implementing best practices and guidelines for website accessibility. Developed in collaboration with the Digital Accessibility Centre, this guide walks merchants through the basic steps of implementing best practices and guidelines for website accessibility. Free Accessibility Training from HSBC Innovation Banking: Access to HSBC's free training courses, designed to help individuals ensure their websites, apps, and digital products are usable by everyone, particularly those with disabilities. Access to HSBC's free training courses, designed to help individuals ensure their websites, apps, and digital products are usable by everyone, particularly those with disabilities. Eden Chase Practical Guidance for Improvement: An accessibility audit checklist by disability inclusion champion, Cressida Stephenson, to identify key areas for improvement and provide simple yet impactful adjustments to support neurodivergent employees. An accessibility audit checklist by disability inclusion champion, Cressida Stephenson, to identify key areas for improvement and provide simple yet impactful adjustments to support neurodivergent employees. Eden Chase Inclusive Hiring Toolkit: A resource that addresses hidden barriers in hiring processes, such as unintentionally exclusive job descriptions and inaccessible application systems, aiming to attract and retain neurodivergent and disabled talent. A resource that addresses hidden barriers in hiring processes, such as unintentionally exclusive job descriptions and inaccessible application systems, aiming to attract and retain neurodivergent and disabled talent. 2025 Update from LSB on Deaf Accessibility: An overview of the Lending Standards Board's (LSB) annual update on the availability of accessibility tools and services for deaf or hard of hearing individuals across the UK's financial services sector. By offering merchant website accessibility tools for free, ECOMMPAY is helping businesses meet both ethical and legal standards. Register to download the Ecommpay Accessibility Pack for free here. Companies In This Post Ecommpay
Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Telegraph
The anti-woke brigade won't like it, but this ‘inclusive' museum is actually rather good
Past mountainous warehouses, down a listless canal, and into the quiet academic quarter with its beige halls soaring into skies that never seem to cease to rain, stands Manchester Museum. With the institution freshly glistening with ' European Museum of the Year 2025 ' status, I ventured in to see if this superlative accolade is justified, immersing myself in ancient earrings, psychedelic rickshaws and the tooth of an 80-million-year-old shark, the mellow rain of Manchester pattering on the roof. The museum's purpose is written in the atrium: 'To build understanding between cultures and a more sustainable world.' This isn't really a museum about Manchester, more of artefacts, animals and artworks that have ended up in the museum's collection, and a mosaic of perspectives from ethnic minority communities living in, studying at, or in some way associated with Manchester. It strives to be 'the most inclusive, imaginative and caring museum you'll ever visit'. Essentially, the museum is about belonging. It is this bold curatorial line that gives it a distinctive flavour, with each of the four main galleries contributing to the central theme in interesting and surprising ways. I first entered Ancient History, Contemporary Belonging, a gallery of ancient and medieval artefacts from Anatolian earrings to marvellously-preserved Roman playing pieces, ancient Egyptian cat idols to hoards of delicate medieval silver coins. The rooms are a little over-stuffed, and some of the information plaques positioned so low that all the stooping became exhausting. I had to be economical in what I examined, but this made me worry that I was overlooking some gems, sometimes quite literally. Despite these gripes – entrance is free, anyhow, so you can always come back – a strong flavour of displacement emerged, a synergy between the migration of ancient historical objects and of people. More topical than ever at a time when George Osborne is reportedly negotiating a 'reciprocal, long-term loan' which would send the Elgin Marbles back to Greece, it was hard to peruse the collection without wondering how on earth so many of these rare finds ended up in Manchester and the answers, one suspects, are not always savoury. You're encouraged to consider the human stories of migration, the sometimes traumatic tales of persecution, forced upheaval and dreams of a better life that help to explain how a Mesopotamian hair-pin fetched up in front of you. Many museums now engage in this kind of soul-searching, but here it is taken a step further. Manchester University students of migrant heritage have been invited to respond. The juxtaposition of an 'official' plaque next to a personal response presents a person's lived experience as an echo of the narrative. On paper, this is fraught with risk, threatening to debase the whole thing into mawkish amateurishness. But many of the responses are in fact profoundly moving, making the galleries feel less lofty and academic than their equivalents in, say, the Ashmolean or the British Museum. The next gallery focuses on animals that belong – or should belong, if we weren't doing so much to make the earth uninhabitable. Cinematically lit, with a veritable menagerie of taxidermy and lifelike models, this is an emporium of wonder, at times a cacophony of delighted children's wails. It was exhilarating to stare into the eyes of an African hunting dog, a North American woodchuck, or Maude the tigon – a cross between a male tiger and a lioness, once a beloved feature of Manchester's Belle Vue Zoo – finally on display after 70 long years existing as a rolled-up skin in a storage vault. Stuck on one glass panel, in stark red letters, is the word 'Decolonise!' – signalling its inclusion in the museum's Decolonise! Trail. Of course, this will make some people groan. But the manner in which it is done, at least, is original. It feels like a Just Stop Oil-style organisation has placed it here; a performative act of self-sabotage. It's just one act of curatorial dandyism. Elsewhere, an empty glass box commemorates species that became extinct. In another display, the stuffed heads of tigers and lions loom like phantoms of guilt over black-and-white photographs of hunters. It's only when the curatorial voice slips from posing questions to telling you the answers that the device galls. I felt this peering into a surrealist reconstruction of a curator's office, eerily frozen in time since the 1920s, all mahogany desks and exotic bric-a-brac. It is, we are told, 'like a glimpse of our colonial unconscious' – yet all I could think about was how cosy and charming it looked compared with soulless modern offices. The South Asia Gallery – bright, airy, perfectly spaced – casts a spotlight on the experiences of British Asian communities. Scenes of oppression, violence and starvation under the East India Company and the Raj are included, as one might expect, appearing as incongruously beautiful panels in the atrium. Objects that were 'violently plundered', were are told, have not been included. One of the most poignant parts of this gallery are the displays that bring to life 'hidden' voices within British-Asian communities. The prejudice historically felt by mixed-race Asians is rendered palpable and real. The exhibition on LGBT people of British Asian heritage is particularly moving: their feelings of loneliness, confusion and self-loathing, as well as hope, are all conjured from cuttings from 1990s magazines, help forum notices and leaflets. A final gallery attempts the same thing (slightly less successfully) from an East Asian perspective. I was fascinated to learn that Manchester has a higher proportion of Chinese émigrés than any other city in Europe. It's one of the few revelations we get about Manchester itself. I hankered for more on how this great industrial behemoth came to be, and its later metamorphosis into a modern city of culture. Many, no doubt, would find the emphasis upon displacement, multicultural identity and preserving the environment preachy and over-rehearsed. Some might even declare the whole thing a Trojan's Horse of woke tosh (when I'd read that the museum has 'safe spaces' for anyone who finds the exhibitions traumatising, I did cringe). But Manchester Museum nails its colours to the mast. And it's only fair to judge something by what it is trying to achieve. Does it succeed on its own terms? Overwhelmingly, yes.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Translr App Announces New Strategies to Help Reduce Gender Disclosure Anxiety for Transgender Users
New York, New York, June 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As debates around gender history disclosure continue to spark controversy in public discourse and on mainstream dating platforms, Translr announces new strategies aimed at reducing gender disclosure anxiety for transgender users. The app, designed specifically for the transgender community and allies, reports that targeted features and community-driven tools have contributed to higher levels of user comfort and transparency—while addressing the risks of harassment and discrimination often faced elsewhere. Translr Challenges on Mainstream PlatformsTransgender users—particularly trans women—report facing harassment, discrimination, and fetishization on some mainstream social platforms, even those promoting inclusivity. Instances include abrupt rejection or account reporting following gender disclosure. Emily, a trans model, described such experiences as deeply painful, noting that exclusion often occurs "simply for being herself."Translr's Community-Driven ApproachIn contrast, the specialized app Translr reports that over 75% of its trans users actively share their gender identity—significantly higher engagement than observed on mainstream platforms. The app attributes this to its targeted design and community like Jim, a lawyer who joined out of curiosity, discovered the platform through personal stories shared by trans women. He later entered a relationship with a trans partner and became an advocate for trans rights. Jim stated, "My first trans dating experience was on Translr... an experience unlike anything I'd ever had." Such accounts reflect the app's growing base of users seeking meaningful connections with transgender to Reduce Disclosure AnxietyTranslr employs two core methods to address disclosure concerns: Trans-Centric Community Features Precise matching filters for gender identity and transition status. Peer support resources, including transition guidance and shared narratives. Reduced rejection risk, as many cisgender users actively seek relationships with trans partners. Eliminating the "Disclosure Dilemma"Unlike platforms where trans users face pressure over when to disclose—risking either prejudice or accusations of deception—Translr's environment normalizes transparency. Approximately 40% of its users openly seek long-term relationships with trans women, a notably higher rate than other apps. ConclusionBy prioritizing safety and acceptance, Translr aims to create a space where gender disclosure occurs without fear of discrimination. The platform reports growth in genuine connections between transgender users and TranslrTranslr is a specialized dating app designed for the transgender community and its supporters. It facilitates connections among transgender individuals, cisgender allies, crossdressers, and others in a moderated environment. The app is available on iOS and Android. For more information, visit CONTACT: Polly Chen Translr Limited chenshuang397@ in to access your portfolio
