“Welcome Everyone”: Air Canada Does Away With Gender-Identifying Terms
Jennifer Billock October 15, 2019
In an aim to make air travel more inclusive to everyone, Air Canada has created a new policy that does away with gender-identifying terms, instead of replacing “ladies and gentlemen” with “everyone” or a similar equivalent; the new regulation is not expected to cause much of an issue at all for employees.
Air Canada is taking a step to be gender inclusive in its flights, according to an internal statement released to the Canadian website La Presse. The airline will soon stop using gender-identifying pronouns like “ladies and gentlemen.”
“We want to ensure an inclusive space for everyone, including those who identify with gender X,” the airline said in the statement, reported by La Presse, referring to Canada’s new option of selecting gender X on personal documents to signify that person doesn’t identify specifically as a man or woman. “The change will be reflected in the transmission of the Onboard Announcement Manual as part of our commitment to respect gender identity, diversity and inclusion.”
So far, the reaction to the statement has been positive.
“We are in 2019,” an anonymous flight attendant told La Presse. “Everyone has the right to feel good about themselves and not want to be called sir or madam. [The new policy] is not an obstacle. It’s easy to apply.”
I hear Air Canada is moving towards addressing its passengers in a more gender-neutral way, replacing “ladies and gentlemen” with “everyone”. This. Is. Good.
— Kate Andrews (@kateality) October 13, 2019
Another anonymous flight attendant agreed but notes there will be a little bit of a transition period.
“Some people do not like change,” they said. “There are people who are used to making the same announcement for 30 years, so there will be a period of adaptation for them.”
My god, this gender correctness is really making me mad. What a bunch of clowns 🤡.
— David W Middleton (@oilman4345) October 13, 2019
[Featured Image: Shutterstock]
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Because it may have possibly offended .003% of their customers? What has happened to common sense?
How sad is it that this is the world we now live in? (The answer is very, very sad).
Geez, why wouldn't they do away with the MR/MS thing on the tickets then rather than introducing "X". Also, first-world problems.
Turns out that Mel Allen was a pioneer in promoting gender inclusion. Who knew?
This really seems like a solution in search of a problem, but it doesn’t really take much effort to implement. (Actually, it’s less effort to say “everyone” instead of “ladies and gentlemen.”)