Canadian airlines promise 'X' gender option for passengers who don't identify as male or female
CBC
Social media is full of posts this month by Canadian airlines celebrating pride. There's a WestJet TikTok video showing a plane flying over a rainbow, Sunwing and Air Transat tweets promoting LGBTQ vacation hot spots and, on Instagram, Flair Airlines is wishing everyone "Happy Pride."
But non-binary Canadians with travel plans feel excluded from those Pride celebrations.
That's because the airlines still don't offer passengers a gender-neutral X option when booking flights online. Instead, they must choose male or female. The airlines are promising change, but some transgender advocates, including Gemma Hickey of St. John's, N.L., say they're getting fed up with the wait.
"It's very hypocritical for these airlines to be promoting inclusivity and celebrating pride when they're marginalizing a group of us within that community who, for a long time, have existed on the fringes," said Hickey.
As a non-binary person, Hickey uses the pronoun they and doesn't identify exclusively as male or female.
In 2017, the federal government introduced a third, X gender designation for passports. Hickey received one the following year and immediately began lobbying Canada's major airlines to adopt the X option as well.
"They've had time to make the changes," said Hickey. "It feels like I'm not part of society. I'm not represented."
That's how Iz Lloyd felt when flying with WestJet last month from Calgary to Halifax. Lloyd, who is non-binary, said they were forced to identify as male or female to book their flight and check in online.
Lloyd, who has an X gender designation on their passport, said they learned at the airport that people who identify as non-binary must show up in person to check in.
"If men had to check in at the gate and they couldn't check in online, people would lose their mind … but the trans community is expected to put up with it."
The following week, Lloyd asked WestJet to pull its social media posts about pride. The posts, however, remain online.
"Companies are really bad with rainbow washing of, you know, 'We're so inclusive, we're so good, look at us, give us money, like, we are the best,'" said Lloyd. "But if you aren't actually putting in the work, you don't get to say that."
According to 2021 census data, 0.33 per cent of Canadians, or about one in 300 people, identify as transgender or non-binary. Roughly 41,355 of the more than 30 million people who responded to the census identified as non-binary.
Transport Canada told CBC News that airlines need to identify passengers' gender for security reasons and to estimate their weight to determine whether an aircraft is safe to fly.
