A furious mother has launched an attack on Delta Airlines after the airline refused to let her buy a genderless ticket for her son.
As 52-year-old Dawn Henry revealed, she wanted to buy a gender X plane ticket for her nonbinary son, who is 21 years old and uses they/them pronouns, when she was getting ready for their travels.
Soon enough, however, the mother was told she could only choose from female and male gender options and that the airline would not budge.
“Delta is discriminating against #nonbinary individuals and not allowing them to fly despite legal ID issued by states that allow X on birth certificates and state-issued IDs,” Henry wrote in her rant on Twitter.
“This thread is the ongoing saga of me trying to purchase a ticket for my non-binary adult child.”
The mother added: “Some context: TSA requires that the boarding pass reservation match your state issued ID. TSA accepts X as a gender marker on state IDs.
“The problem isn’t with TSA. The problem is airlines, like Delta and Alaska Air #nonbinary #LGBTQ.”
In a series of posts, Henry went on to reveal how the Delta agent she was talking to wasn’t unable to change the 21-year-old’s gender designation to X even though TSA allegedly told her to call the airline and demand the change be made manually.
“The Delta rep was determined to help, but after over 30 minutes on hold, she told me ‘they’ said it doesn’t matter what the ID says, use what’s on the birth certificate. I explained that the Birth Certificate also says X. I was put on hold again,” Henry added.
“After some time on hold, a Delta supervisor in Atlanta came on the line and told me that their system only uses male/female and I can only use one of those. I explained again that my adult child is #nonbinary and #LGBTQ and their ID is X and TSA requires them to match.
“The supervisor got short with me and said, sorry, that’s the policy. I said, are you telling me you aren’t allowing my #nonbinary #LGBTQ kid who has a perfectly legal state-issued ID to fly?”
After not being able to reach an agreement with the Delta supervisor, Henry went on to slam the airline on social media and demand a change in their systems.
As Delta has since confirmed, the ‘X’ gender option will be added to their systems at some point. The change, however, might take some time due to its complexity.
“Delta Air Lines is a proud, long-time supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and we understand that being seen and acknowledged is part of having an equitable travel experience,” a spokesperson said.
“While we quickly shifted focus due to COVID in early 2020 to helping customers navigate the rapidly changing environment and government regulations, we are back on track to be able to offer a non-binary gender option in our booking systems in 2022.”
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