It's been a long time coming, but SEPTA has finally agreed to remove gender stickers from its monthly transit passes, volunteer advocacy group Riders Against Gender Exclusion announced. The exact reason for doing so remains the topic of some dispute."Because of our collective efforts, SEPTA has agreed to overturn thisdiscriminatory policy," RAGE founding member Max Ray said in a release. "This decision by SEPTA is so important totransgender riders who daily faced discrimination and risked their ownsafety just to ride the bus to where they need to go."SEPTA general manager Joe Casey agreed in a recent meeting with the group to submit a proposal to the agency's board of directors asking for the stickers to be eliminated the soonest date the policy can be changed, which is the second half of 2013, according to RAGE. The agency must first go through a process that includes public hearings, planned for the spring of 2013.SEPTA reportedly agreed to remove the stickers about two years ago under its planned computerized "smart card" fare system, but that has been continually pushed back by federal funding and other delays, while the stickers have remained.Casey agreed last week to remove the stickers before the completion ofthe new payment technology, which is currently slated for 2014, according to a letter published by PhillyMag.com.But today SEPTA's director of public affairs Richard Maloney said thatthe change is, in fact, a long-planned part of the new chip-based faresystem in which riders will load TransPasses with funds via cash, credit card or smartphone rather than buy them for a period of unlimited use. He said the fare changes will begin to be implemented in early 2013, not 2014."The new system isnot coming in all in one day. It’s going in bydifferent systems – buses at one time, subways and then eventuallyregional rail," he said. "As the new system is implemented piece bypiece,we’re simply replacing one payment system with another. It’s not amatter of removing the stickers.""I know the RAGE people put out a press release this week, but this issomething that's been in the works as we’ve been planning a completeoverhaul of our fare collection system," Maloney continued. "The current weekly and monthly passes, once you have apass, it's unlimited use. ... The new passes, when theygo into effect in the beginning of next year, will be like an E-ZPass.The value is added so when you buy the pass, there will be value to it,making necessity of differentiation between male and female or anyoneelse moot."RAGE has been fighting a grassroots campaign since 2009 to remove thestickers, gathering thousands of petition signatures, organizingmembership drives and staging highly visible public protests.The cause gained a high-profile advocate in Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, who pledged to work with the Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club on the issue in 2011 and passed a resolution in City Council late last month urging SEPTA to remove the stickers."At the end of the process and debate, we want Philadelphians of allcultures, walks of life and backgrounds to get through each day withoutfeeling discriminated against – without someone dimming their shine," Reynolds Brown said when the legislation was introduced. "Wehope this resolution will move the needle further toward our goal."Right now, passes are demarcated with "M" or "F" stickers based on the gender shown on a rider's state-issued identification. "To minimize people passing the passes aroundamong families or pizza delivery shops or whatever, when the passes wentinto effect in the early 80s, we used the stickers as an effort to minimize," Maloney said, though many have argued that the policy isn't a particularly effective safeguard against fraud.But the rule has had the unintended side effect of making it more difficult for transgender riders or those who do not present themselves as distinctly male or female to take public transit. Riders have been harassed, subject to embarrassing public lines of questioning by transit drivers, "outed" to other riders and had their passes confiscated, according to RAGE."We hope that this victory can be a symbol for other trans people that we don’t have to wait for other people to change systems for us,"RAGE founding member Nico Amador said. "We have the power to organize and create the changes ourselves."
