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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: 5, Insightful) by VeasMKII on Monday February 18 2019, @08:12AM (8 children)
At the end of the day, i don't generally see how knowing someones gender is going to make a blind bit of different to an airline.
This information probably shouldn't be recorded in the first place. People just throw it into forms without thinking.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 18 2019, @08:58AM (2 children)
Good argument. Why do they want to know? Do females get more comfortable seats? Didn't think so. Do males always get the windows seats? Didn't think so. Some difference in the menu offered? Again, I didn't think so. I'm going to get precisely the same service, or lack thereof, whether I'm male or female, so they don't really need to know diddlysquat about me.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Monday February 18 2019, @11:38AM
I seriously think it is because they want to know how nice they have to be while groping your genitals. And which gender gets to grope you. I suppose female TSA groper might be uncomfortable groping a penis, and a male TSA groper would try to avoid knowing he gets aroused groping tits of a man. That's all I can think of.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by slinches on Monday February 18 2019, @03:56PM
It's a bit morbid to think about, but it's likely for identification purposes in the event of a horrific crash. Burned and mangled bodies can still generally be identified as male or female by their bone structure. Knowing how many of each are on board can be helpful in determining the identity of the remains by excluding ~1/2 of the options.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @11:27AM (4 children)
I miss the days when they didn't care about your name, let alone what reproductive organs you had. As long as you had a valid boarding pass, you were welcomed aboard.
Simpler times.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 18 2019, @02:22PM (3 children)
You can still get on some trains without verification of your name (not sure about cross-country buses). I expect feds/Congress/TSA to ruin that in the coming decades. Probably if high speed rail takes off.
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(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday February 18 2019, @02:48PM
> You can still get on some trains without verification of your name
WTF? You have to have name verification on *trains*
Land of the free my arse
(no name verification on domestic flights in the UK, let alone trains)
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday February 18 2019, @06:15PM (1 child)
Part of the reason they don't worry as much about trains: It's a heck of a lot harder to hijack a train. For starters, there's the problem of getting to the controls and the engineer, which often isn't easy or obvious. Second, once you get there, what are you going to do, demand that the engineer take the train to Libya? Third, if you somehow got that far, the fact that the train is on the ground, has to follow the tracks, and exactly which tracks they're following is controlled outside of the train, means that it's much easier for appropriate authorities to respond to the threat you present. Sure, you might kill a few passengers or something, but you aren't going to be able to do any really serious damage.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 18 2019, @06:34PM
True, a lot less deadly than a weaponized airplane. But you could do a lot of damage by bombing one of the cars, perhaps derailing the whole train and getting a 100+ kill count. There's also lots of situations where you have many people standing crowded together, ready to be gunned down.
But what we do know is that logic and reason don't necessarily drive decision making.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_involving_railway_systems [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Madrid_train_bombings [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Mumbai_train_bombings [wikipedia.org]
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