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Viewers have been voicing their upset after discovering that an episode of the children’s show Transformers Earthspark has had an explicit reference to a non-binary character’s gender identity removed from its broadcast on the BBC.
Last year, the cartoon show aired an episode in the US in which a robot named Nightshade requested that people started using gender-neutral pronouns to refer to them in future.
Elsewhere in the same episode, a human character named Sam told Nightshade: “I know I’m safe when I’m with my friends or other non-binary people.”
“Non-binary?” the robot responded, after which Sam explained that the term refers to “people who aren’t female or male”.
“I always knew my pronouns felt right… but what a wonderful word for a wonderful experience,” Nightshade then concluded.
However, in the version of the episode streaming on BBC iPlayer, the episode hastily cuts to another scene immediately after Sam says: “I know I’m safe when I’m with my friends.”
Discussion about this edited version of the episode began on X (formerly Twitter) last week, with many sharing their disappointment at the change.
HuffPost UK has contacted the BBC and Hasbro (which owns eOne, the production company behind Transformers Earthspark) for comment.
It’s worth noting that the same episode is streaming in its unedited form on Netflix UK.
The edit available on BBC iPlayer – which was apparently first added in September 2023 – does see Sam introduce themself using “she/they” pronouns to Nightshade, but not discussing their gender identity any further than that.
Watch a snippet of the unedited scene in question in the video below:
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