Newest update of American Airlines (AA): providing your gender when you are purchasing tickets online or through an AA Representative. Now, to the average American not concerned with LGBTQ issues this may not seem like a big deal but for those of us whom are, this is a bigger deal than it seems at first glance. Why’s that? Well, when going to fill out “gender” on the forms the only choices are…male and female.
I feel that this is not inclusive of all Americans and even more so, the LGBT community. For people whose gender expression does not match their so called gender as it is being labeled on the form, this has the potential to create a great inconvenience. I think that is where more education needs to occur. There is a huge difference between gender expression, gender identity, and gender role. In simple terms: expression is what is seen on the outside i.e. clothing, haircut, make-up, etc. Identity is the innermost concept of self as “male” or “female,” which matches the biological sex for many people but not all, and role being what is recognized as masculine or feminine.
So unless AA is specifically asking for biological sex there should be more possible answers than just male or female. Yet, even with that, what about people who are F to M or M to F in which many times their biological sex won’t match the sex on their driver’s license. Which leads me to say that if this is going to turn into a norm, it needs to be made easier for people who have transitioned to change their paperwork to match what they recognize themselves as, not what society says.
My point, more education needs to occur on every level (grassroots to national)…including big name companies.

"To be nobody but myself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting."
~ E. E. Cummings ~