United Airlines has announced that it has become the first U.S. airline to offer non-binary gender options and the “Mx.” title throughout all of its booking channels.
As part of the airline’s goal “to lead the industry in LGBT inclusivity”, the company now offers additional gender options to wider community. Customer “now have the ability to identify themselves as M(male), F(female), U(undisclosed) or X(unspecified), corresponding with what is indicated on their passports or identification.”
United’s Chief Customer Officer Toby Enqvist also said:
“United is excited to share with our customers, whether they identify along the binary of male or female or not, that we are taking the steps to exhibit our care for them while also providing additional employee training to make us even more welcoming for all customers and employees.”
These options line up with those recently approved by the Airlines for America (A4A) industry trade group. The A4A group consists of nine airlines including passenger carriers Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest, and United Airlines.
From a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) standpoint, customers will still be required to put their name, birth date, and gender that is listed on whatever form of government ID they choose to book their ticket with. Special mention was made to note that gender information is still required only to help with eliminating false matches with persons possessing the same or similar names on government watch lists, and would not be used to “evaluate a person’s gender”. TSA officials at the security checkpoints are only required to verify your ticket name with that on your government issued ID, and should not have any reason to ask for gender information.
[Featured Photo: Angelo DeSantis/Wikimedia]
Featured image: Angelo DeSantis/Wikimedia | CC BY-SA 2.0 DE
