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The BBC has responded to criticism after blurring out a t-shirt worn by Strictly Come Dancing star Bethany Antonia urging people to protect transgender women.
Saturday (10 October) night’s episode saw the remaining 14 couples taking to the dance floor for the third time, with House of the Dragon star Antonia, 28, and her pro partner, 35, Nancy Xu performing an American Smooth.
The dance was preceded by a montage of the pair in rehearsals, with Antonia dancing in a white t-shirt that, in some footage from the side, could be seen to bear the words “Protect The Dolls”, a slogan referencing the need to protect trans women. While the term “dolls” originates from the ballroom scene of the 1980s, “Protect the Dolls” was popularised in 2025 after designer Conner Ives produced a white t-shirt with the slogan – with the proceeds going to US charity Trans Lifeline.
However, when Antonia was filmed front on, the words had been blurred out.
The editing was quickly noticed by Strictly viewers, who flooded the Instagram comment section beneath Antonia and Xu’s dance with the words.
In response, a BBC spokesperson told The Independent: “As is standard practice on any entertainment show on the BBC and in line with our editorial guidelines, appropriate steps are taken to reduce the inclusion of any overt branding or slogans that may be present, regardless of the wording or statement in question.”
The Independent has contacted Antonia’s representatives for comment.
The t-shirt Antonia appears to be wearing is the same that has been worn by stars like Madonna, Pedro Pascal and Addison Raye in the past.
In October 2025, a group of British trans activists including Munroe Bergdorf all wore the t-shirt on the cover of Glamour magazine, in an issue declaring “The Dolls” one of the winners of the magazine’s Woman of the Year awards.
Antonia and Xu are in the only same-sex partnership on this year’s Strictly, with the Hadestown actor saying that watching Nicola Adams and Katya Jones dance together on Strictly in 2020 had inspired her to publicly embrace her sexuality.
“When I watched Nicola and Katya do it for the first time and be the first same-sex pairing, I wasn’t out to everyone in my life,” she told BBC News.
“Watching them do the show made it so much easier for me to have that conversation with people in my life… It was so important to me to make sure that if I did [Strictly], I got to do it with a woman.”
Strictly Come Dancing continues Saturday 17 October at 6.15pm on BBC One.
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