American Airlines has become the second carrier in the United States to offer a non-binary gender option when booking flight tickets. American follows United Airlines in this move.
American has added two gender options in addition to the traditional male and female selections. They are “U” that stands for “undisclosed,: and “X” which stands for “unspecified.”
The American Airlines website is being updated with these changes and will launch sometime early next year. At present, these additional options are available only to those who call the airlines direct to book a flight.
In March, United Airlines became the first airline to offer non-binary gender options throughout all booking channels in addition to providing the option to select the title “Mx.” during booking and in a MileagePlus customer profile.
“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,” said United’s Chief Customer Officer Toby Enqvist, in a statement.
As part of implementing these new changes, United worked with the Human Rights Campaign and The Trevor Project on employee training initiatives. These initiatives include teaching employees about preferred pronouns and the persistence of gender norms, LGBT competency in the workplace and other steps to make United an inclusive space for both customers and employees.
“At the Human Rights Campaign, we believe being acknowledged as the gender you identify with is part of treating everyone with dignity and respect,” said Beck Bailey, acting director of the Workplace Equality Program, in a statement. “By providing non-binary gender selection for ticketing and the gender-inclusive honorific ‘Mx’ in user profiles, United Airlines is taking an important step forward for non-binary inclusion.”
“The Trevor Project is grateful for United Airlines’ support of our life-saving work on behalf of LGBTQ youth,” said Amit Paley, CEO & Executive Director of The Trevor Project. “We are thrilled to bring Trevor’s expertise on the mental health of LGBTQ people to United to ensure its employees maintain safe and inclusive spaces for LGBTQ employees and guests.”
For more information, go to www.aa.com or www.united.com. For an update on American Airlines, click here and for an overall update, click here.
