Dawn Henry: Arizona mom slams Delta Airlines for refusing Gender X ticket to non-binary child
A 52-year-old mother from Arizona blasted Delta Airlines for refusing to accept her non-binary child's identity and not issuing a flight ticket for them. Dawn Henry, lambasted the airlines in a series of tweets recently, detailing her harrowing experience with Delta Airlines officials, who insisted that they recognize only male and female genders. The Arizona resident, who also happens to be a proud Democrat and LGBTQ activist, wished to buy a surprise flight ticket for her 21-year-old non-binary child.
"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. This thread is the ongoing saga of me trying to purchase a ticket for my non-binary adult child," Henry tweeted, further adding, "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." She narrated her ordeal in meticulous detail, calling out the popular airlines over their discriminatory and exclusionary gender policy.
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Henry wanted to book a ticket for her non-binary child on Delta Airlines, who uses the pronouns they/them and identifies by the gender 'X'. The gender is specified on their birth certificate as well as the Washington state driver's license, where the individual is currently residing. TSA mandates the flight ticket details to match with the flyer's ID, which is why Henry was insistent on getting the correct gender on her child's ticket. However, she was least prepared for the discriminatory behavior and rejection from the airline officials.
She later narrated, "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 @AlaskaAir."
@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. This thread is the ongoing saga of me trying to purchase a ticket for my non-binary adult child. 1/x
— ⚖️Aurora Dawn⚖️ 💪🏻🌊🌈💜 (@truth_trumps) January 6, 2022
"I first discovered this problem when trying to make an online reservation to buy a ticket as a Christmas present for my #nonbinary adult child. The only gender options in @Delta and @AlaskaAir online reservation systems is male or female."
"TSA told to call the airline to get them to add the correct X gender marker by hand when booking. I figured this was a common step b/c the majority of states allow #nonbinary gender designations on state IDs. US Passports will allow X in 2022," Henry mentioned in her Twitter thread. She also shared how the Delta officials appeared confused at first when requested to mark the Gender as X for the passenger.
"The @Delta 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?.....She said no, I’m not saying that, it’s just the policy at @Delta. I pointed out it has that effect if TSA requires matching documents and there’s no way to buy a ticket with a gender that matches the state-issued #nonbinary gender on the ID."
Eventually, Henry was forced to hang up on the Delta official who kept insisting that they could not change their policy. She was also unable to book any ticket for her non-binary adult child. "But as it stands, at least with @Delta, #nonbinary people are not allowed to fly. The supervisor said that’s not true. But when a policy makes it impossible to buy a ticket that will comport with TSA guidelines, the result is the same. And that’s discrimination," Henry also noted.
She later told NBC News that she vouches to fight for the rights of non-binary people, to have their gender represented on airline tickets.