The United Kingdom shuts down NHS Pride Badge's plan, Delhi offers free bus travel for trans people, and Canada's prime minister calls out "anti-LGBT" proposals.
UK Shuts Down NHS Pride Badge Plan
The NHS Rainbow Badge plan was designed to promote inclusivity and Pride within England’s healthcare system. According to a VICE News investigation, it’s over now that the government withdrew funding.
According to Pink News, the investigation found that “hundreds of thousands of pounds” of funding had been “secretly pulled.”
“Taxpayers rightly expect value for money, which is why we expect the NHS and all the department’s arms-length bodies to continuously review whether their diversity and inclusion roles are good value, and to always consider ways to improve,” said a DHSC spokesperson in an interview with VICE News.
According to whistleblowers, this is not the first time social and progressive movements have experienced general pushback or funding removal.
Free Bus Travel For Trans People in Delhi
Photo by Ramesh NG, via Wikimedia Commons.
Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi, announced that public bus transport is now free for the transgender community.
The state already had free travel for women and senior citizens and has now extended the program.
“In the last 75 years, no government in the country has done any good work for the kinnar [trans] community … Like women, members of the kinnar community will get free safar [travel] in Delhi govt-run buses,” said Kejriwal in his announcement.
According to Pink News, the proposal still needs to be presented to the cabinet before it can begin. Kejriwal hopes that they will launch the free bus transport “in the coming few weeks.”
PM Calls Out Proposals For Being ‘Anti-LGBT’
Photo via www.pm.gc.ca.
Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, called Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s transgender proposals the “most anti-LGBT in the country.”
The proposals change rules for transgender children in Alberta. According to the National Post, Smith said the fall sitting of the legislature will work towards a ban on gender reassignment surgery for those 17 and under and prohibit puberty blockers or hormone therapies for the purposes of such surgery for anyone 15 and under, unless they’ve already begun such procedures. They will also work towards preventing transgender female athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
Smith said that the purpose of these changes is to protect children from the consequences of choices they may later regret and to preserve the role of parents in their lives.
Trudeau disagrees.
“If Smith wants to fight someone, stand with us and fight for Canadians on lower grocery prices, on affordable fuel, on more housing, on fighting climate change,” said Trudeau while speaking at an event in Waterloo. “Fight with us to defend the rights of vulnerable Canadians. Don’t fight against vulnerable LGBT youth.”
The Alberta Teachers’ Association, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, medical professionals and the province’s NDP Opposition, have criticized these proposals.
