Since the summer of 2009, members of Riders Against Gender Exclusion (RAGE) have been organizing against SEPTA’s use of gender marking stickers on their weekly and monthly TransPasses that were designed to prevent heterosexual spouses from sharing passes. The stickers, they argue, make commuting difficult and dangerous for riders whose gender identifications don’t match the stickers on their passes, and have produced countless incidents of gender-presentation based harassment and unjust confiscation of passes.
On Thursday April 12, SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey announced that SEPTA plans to remove the gender stickers from all monthly transit passes by 2013. “A fare policy proposal will be submitted to SEPTA’s board of directors that includes this change beginning in the second half of 2013,” reported Max Ray, founding member of RAGE and West Philadelphia resident. “We thank SEPTA for doing the right thing,” continued Ray. “New fare system delays may be unavoidable, but SEPTA realized that human rights can’t wait. I’m proud of the tremendous amount of work that the transgender community has put into this project and all we’ve accomplished during this campaign.” West Philadelphians have been heavily involved in the organizing work that produced this groundbreaking victory – Robin Markle, Wren Warner, Victoria White, Ray Murphy, and Nico Armador to name just a few.
“On a personal level, the victory is meaningful to me because I think there are so few examples of trans people who are doing grassroots organizing and direct action on trans issues,” said founding member Nico Amador. “I think that the success of this campaign isn’t just about getting the gender stickers removed, but also about sending a message that trans people don’t have to wait for the legal system or social workers to change things for us, we can do it ourselves.”
– Emma Eisenberg
April 18th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
What are they going to do instead?
April 18th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
well done!
April 18th, 2012 at 2:35 pm
congratulations to everyone who was involved– a lot of hard work went into this!
April 18th, 2012 at 2:44 pm
From what SEPTA’s spokesperson has to say in this article, it sounds like SEPTA does not deserve credit for “doing the right thing” http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/local/article/1140373–septa-fares-changing-in-2013
April 18th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
Why will it take a year to stop putting stickers on the passes. It shouldn’t have to take so long!
April 18th, 2012 at 6:07 pm
Because they have to come up with an alternative method to avoid sharing passes
April 19th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
How is pass sharing such a big issue? I lived in NYC for years, and always used a monthly metro card. It never had a gender sticker, and it seemed to work out just fine. Glad this is finally getting taking care of, I find it insulting to stand there while they look at me and determine my gender.
April 19th, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Septa can’t even get their PR right. Let alone stick to a schedule. And I agree with Wendy. If they stop worrying about such small things, they may be able to take care of larger items like
– doing track work in off hours
– fixing faulty equipment
– Septa police doing their jobs. Not seeing PPD at train stops, instead of on the streets preventing crime.
– Having the trains run 24/7 – therefore making more money for Septa.
Honestly, it’s 2 subway lines, a fleet of buses and 7 regional train lines. They should speak with MTA in NYC for some advice.
April 23rd, 2012 at 4:59 pm
hooray for RAGE!
happy to see SEPTA stepping their game up. i agree with everybody before me, tho, there’s so much more to be done.