From the termination of the Keystone XL pipeline project to the United Kingdom ending the restriction on gay and bisexual men donating blood, there’s no shortage of good news this month.
June 8: Google Introduces New Feature to Encourage Gender-Neutral Language (Hypebae)
Google is now targeting gendered language, increasingly encouraging users to adopt non-gendered alternatives like “chairperson” instead of “chairman.” Their goal is to double down on efforts to normalize gender-neutral language, target the “generic masculine,” and avoid any potential offense a reader may experience.
June 9: Keystone XL Pipeline Project Officially Terminated by Canadian Energy Company (NBC News)
Months after President Biden revoked the Keystone XL pipeline permit on his first day in office, TC Energy—the Canadian energy infrastructure company behind the pipeline—announced they’d terminated the project.
"For 13 years, an international movement of frontline communities in the U.S. and Canada, Indigenous leaders, and environmentalists fought back against this terrible proposed project at every turn," said Michael Brune, Executive Director of Sierra Club, in a statement. "Today, we can say yet again, that our efforts were a resounding success."
June 17: U.K. Ends Restriction on Gay and Bisexual Men Donating Blood (The Washington Post)
Following new National Health Service guidelines, anyone who has had the same sexual partner for a minimum of three months can now donate blood, plasma, and platelets in most areas of the United Kingdom—regardless of their gender or sexuality.
“We welcome today’s historic change, which will help ensure more gay and bi men can donate blood and represents an important step towards a donation selection policy entirely based on an individualised assessment of risk,” says Robbie de Santos, Director of Communications + External Affairs at Stonewall.
June 17: Biden Signs Bill Making Juneteenth a Federal Holiday (AP News)
It was recently announced that Juneteenth would become a federal holiday, following recent legislation signed by President Biden. June 19 is now the 12th federal holiday, and Biden believes it will be one of his greatest honors as President.
“This is a day of profound weight and profound power,” Biden says, “A day in which we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take.”
June 21: Sha’Carri Richardson Is Now the Fastest Woman in America (Harper’s Bazaar)
Coming in at just over ten seconds in the women’s 100m race in the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, 21-year-old sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson is headed to the Tokyo Olympics where a gold medal would make her the first American woman to win gold since Gail Devers in 1996.
“I just want the world to know that I’m that girl,” Richardson told an NBC interviewer after the race. “Every time I step on the track I'm going to try to do what it is that me, my coach, my support team believe I can do and the talent that God blessed me to have. ... I'm never going to take an opportunity to perform in vain.”
