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U.S. Airlines to Offer New Gender Options for Non-Binary Passengers
Air travelers who want to will soon be able to choose a gender option other than "male" or "female" when buying their tickets.
The new "undisclosed" or "unspecified" options are meant to make things easier for travelers and airlines as a growing number of local, state and national governments issue identification documents with alternative gender choices, according to Airlines for America, a trade group that represents many major United States carriers.
"U.S. airlines value a culture of diversity and inclusion, both in the workplace and for our passengers," the group said in a statement.
The Transportation Security Administration requires that travelers have gender markers associated with their tickets that match the identification documents they present at agency checkpoints. The new standard will make it easier for passengers who are gender nonconforming to travel with documents that more accurately represent their identities.
Delta Air Lines, which left the Airlines for America trade group in 2015, will also offer the new options.
If you're even flying at all, I'd suggest picking "Undisclosed" or "Unspecified" simply as a way to mess with the TSA.
Also at The Daily Beast, MarketWatch, and USA Today.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @07:36AM (28 children)
We've crossed the line from compassion to enabling. Why just this one thing? We shouldn't be so limited...
If you are 5'10" and weigh only 90 pounds, but you insist that you are obese, we should all accept your self-identification. It's so wrong to believe in anorexia. All obese people, even ones who don't "pass" very well, need our encouragement to lose weight. We should celebrate every weight loss milestone.
If you think that the CIA is listening to your thoughts, we should respect that. We shouldn't suggest things like Zyprexia and lithium. We should confirm that the CIA really does listen to your mind.
If you think your life has no value and it is time to kill yourself, we shouldn't challenge this. We should help, offering to loan things like rope and guns and cars.
If you feel that you need more opiods, we should help you get some. Providing oxycontin or krokodil is what is right for you. Nobody else has a right to claim otherwise, especially if that would hurt your feelings.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @07:48AM (5 children)
These people suffer from gender dysphoria.
It's a mental illness.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Monday February 18 2019, @10:18AM (4 children)
So are all the other body dysmorphias. The analogy was a good one.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 18 2019, @03:13PM (3 children)
Possibly but it wasn't a car analogy and should be discounted.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @07:42PM (2 children)
My Toyota identifies as a Mercedes, except for the purposes of insurance.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @08:12PM
My Honda Civic identifies as a Tesla Model S, and how dare those bigoted supercharger stations refuse to offer service!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 19 2019, @12:30AM
My Toyota identifies as a Toyota. It's got over three hundred sixty thousand miles on it, so it can hold its head high in any company.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by cubancigar11 on Monday February 18 2019, @07:54AM (21 children)
All that is fine, but there are 2 questions that need to be asked:
1. What is exactly an airline wants to know? Are they interested in knowing which genital you have? Do they want to know how "nice" they need to be while groping? Why do they want to know my gender in the first place? If it is a government requirement, why does the government want to know my gender while I am traveling? Depending on the answer to the above questions, one could argue if they need to provide 2 or more options.
2. A simple option of 'Other' beside Male and Female is not a problem. 'Other' do exist. If you think there are people abusing that option, then the solution is not to remove 'Other'. So what should be done to stop it?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Apparition on Monday February 18 2019, @08:19AM (14 children)
Change "Other" to "Ill." If you're a hermaphrodite, you're physically ill. If you identify as something other than male, female, or hermaphrodite, then you're mentally ill.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cubancigar11 on Monday February 18 2019, @08:34AM (12 children)
If you are born into it, is there any reason to call it 'ill' if you are well functioning? Mentally ill, I can fully understand. Physically ill? That is one hell of a slippery slope. We already have too many things being defined as illness. Apparently, if you aren't an ideal worker, you are ill. I would prefer if that is not the case.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 18 2019, @09:30AM (8 children)
If restless leg syndrome can be called an illness, anything can. I'd say being a hermaphrodite is more of a birth defect than an illness but it's really up to the person in question how they choose to look at it. They can consider it a superpower for all I care.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Monday February 18 2019, @10:12AM (1 child)
True, RLS isn't an illness -- it's a syndrome [wikipedia.org]. It's definitely a real physical condition, though, not just a case where someone is antsy, energetic, or lacking in self-control.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Monday February 18 2019, @11:18AM
True. In fact, I don't have a problem with calling something illness. A good friend of mine, I suspect, is suffering from RLS but he gets offended (rightly so) if someone repeatedly starts pointing that out while he is talking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @10:32AM (5 children)
So you're saying it's OK for a hermaphrodite to identify their gender-related condition as something other than "Male" or "Female"? What about other gender-related conditions? Congratulations, you're now a liberal.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cubancigar11 on Monday February 18 2019, @11:31AM (3 children)
I am neither liberal nor conservative. I hate identity politics. I haven't put any effort in figuring out which label defines me. I agree to most of what Jordan Peterson says, and I am open to people having character flaws.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 18 2019, @03:19PM (2 children)
I halfway-to-mostly agree with most of what I've been forced to listen to by him. He's extremely poor at conveying a message to anyone outside of academia (boring as fuck, long-winded, and uses words with entirely different meanings in academia than in general use) though and generally at least slightly off-base on any given topic.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday February 20 2019, @06:50AM (1 child)
Yes, all those are traits that define academia. It is an indictment of our times that voices aligning with conservative ideas are ignored only because they don't sound academic enough. "Reality has a well-known liberal bias" - An ignorant comedian trained in acting.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday February 20 2019, @11:53PM
I just wish he'd take up shooting pool at bars on the weekends. Maybe he'd learn how to communicate with people who aren't in academia without making them want to jab an ice pick through their eardrums.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 18 2019, @03:15PM
Identify as whatever you like. That's entirely your right. Expecting the world to make allowances for you being silly is not.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday February 18 2019, @04:34PM (2 children)
I know somebody who is intersex (that's the current technical term for it). That person uses female pronouns and name, and I've never seen nor cared about the details of her genitals, but she's very clear that they aren't one of the 2 more common packages.
She's not what I would describe as "ill" or "sick": She was born with unusual genitals, yes, but that hasn't stopped her from holding down a job, having a by-all-appearances-happy long-term romance, or maintaining her physical and mental health, so what's the problem? She can't have biological kids, but lots of otherwise healthy people can't have biological kids.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 18 2019, @04:45PM (1 child)
And a lot of healthy people shouldn't have biological kids. From a wisdom standpoint not a "there should be a law" standpoint.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday February 18 2019, @05:56PM
Alas, as per Idiocracy, a common phenomenon is those that should not have kids screwing up and having kids, while people who would make great parents go childless.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Monday February 18 2019, @02:19PM
That sounds like an inaccurate representation of "ill". Are people who grow an extra body part or get an arm amputated "ill"?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 18 2019, @09:28AM
Women and children first purposes, maybe? Beats the shit out of me.
Nothing. If you find out someone's been playing silly buggers you necessarily have also found out their actual gender and the issue is moot.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @10:50AM (2 children)
So they can enable ignorant people who refuse to sit next to females, males-who-like-males, females-who-like-females, omnivores, people who are melanin-gifted, people who speak foreign languages, people who enjoy a different diet so smell different, people who don't have the same imaginary friends as themselves, or any other groups that their indoctrination system has taught them are, in some way, sub-human. (Don't be too quick to judge. Odds are you've been indoctrinated with some beliefs that others think are just as backward or ignorant but happen to be socially acceptable where you are.)
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Monday February 18 2019, @11:35AM (1 child)
Which is to say, they want to provide better services depending on your gender - in which case they can add an option for 'apache helicopter' or NULL for all I care.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @02:02PM
Look, twinkle toes, you know that you can't actually legally claim to be an Apache Attack Helicopter....
... until your rotary blades are complete, you have done at least 20 hours in your new flight (running around an oval making pew pew sounds) mode and at least have had your missile harness worn in if not actually test fired with live ammo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @01:24AM (1 child)
1. What is exactly an airline wants to know?
To help identify the body when the face has been ripped off in the crash. E.g. "Oh, that must be Ron Jeremy!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @05:10AM
Just use their DNA
The TSA can collect a "sample" at the gate.