The classic children’s series, “Thomas the Tank Engine,” is relaunching next week with an updated set of characters and a commitment to being more “inclusive, gender-balanced,” and “multicultural.”

A teaser trailer for the new kinder, gentler, more progressive “Thomas” dropped this week.

According to The Independent, Thomas’s “Stem Team” — the core group of anthropomorphic railroad cars that make up the show’s cast — will now be “gender balanced,” with three “male” trains and three “female” trains taking center stage, rather than the male-heavy team that held down Sir Toppem Hat’s rail yard in the original series.

For now, the trains will adhere to a decidedly regressive gender binary, but the commitment to changing Thomas for the times is long term. – READ MORE

Brown University has come under fire after censoring its own study on transgender youth, which found that social media and friends can influence teenagers to change their gender identity.

The university removed an article about the study from its website five days after it was published, following community complaints that the research was transphobic, the Daily Wire first reported.

In addition, the findings “might invalidate the perspectives of members of the transgender community,” a university dean wrote.

The dean insisted, however, that it was still committed to “academic freedom,” noting that all studies should be “debated vigorously.”

The study examined what it called “rapid-onset gender dysphoria,” when a teen suddenly begins identifying as transgender despite never previously never questioning their identity. – READ MORE