MANCHESTER, UK — Transport for Greater Manchester, the company that runs the city’s Metrolink tram network has received dozens of complaints after a form for signing up to use wi-fi on the network included a ‘transgender’ option.
The Manchester Evening News reports that the form, required for signing up to use the free wi-fi service, asks commuters to disclose their gender with male, female, transgender or prefer not to disclose given as options.
But a group of people who identify as transgender or non-binary have complained this is offensive to their community.
One Reddit user wrote: “Trans people would just tick the male or female box as appropriate to their gender. Having the options of ‘male/female/transgender implies that trans people are neither male nor female which is kinda s***y.”
Another commented: “Can confirm this is not positive for trans people. This sets transgender people apart as something other to men and women which is pretty awful.”
According to the report a Transport for Greater Manchester spokesperson said: “Metrolink is very proud of its well-established links to, and support for, the LGBT community. Because of those links, we elected to include the ‘transgender’ category, in addition to male and female options, to provide as inclusive a service as possible. We included a further category, ‘prefer not to say’, to give customers as broad a choice as possible, relating to their personal preference. However, we’ve since reviewed the need to include this question at all as part of the registration process and, on balance, have decided it is not needed.”
Even as a radical feminist , actually ESPECIALLY as one, I find this perplexing.
Have you EVER heard a transgendered “man” or “woman” identifying themselves as such when they don’t have to…they would tick either “male” or “female” .
Anyway, that option doesn’t allow for differentiating between transmen and transwomen…not that the latter would tick that box anyway, since “transwomen are women”, right?
Pointless option.
And it’s SEX, when referring to male or female, not “gender”
If the two were the same then they’d have to add intersex to the list.
So not just pointless, but inaccurate.