Air Canada stops saying 'ladies and gentlemen,’ opts for gender-neutral terms
To adhere to politically correct gender norms, employees of Canada's major airline will no longer be greeting passengers by the sex-specific "ladies and gentlemen" or the French "mesdames et messieurs," opting instead to use the gender-neutral phrases "everyone" or "tout le monde."
While this has been protocol for years at the Montreal-based Air Canada, the airline is making the language policies official, according to multiplereports.
"We will be amending our onboard announcements to modernize them and remove specific references to gender," a media spokesperson for the company said. "We work hard to make sure all employees feel like valued members of the Air Canada family, while ensuring our customers are comfortable and respected when they choose to travel with us."
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Canada has arguably taken the most significant steps to enshrine transgenderism into employment practices and the law. Though the Canadian Bar Association admits on its website that recently adopted protections, sometimes referred to as "SOGIE" rights — sexual orientation and gender identity and expression — are "not currently well understood," discrimination on these traits is prohibited.
The CBA defines gender identity as "the inherent sense all people possess of being a woman, a man, something distinct from woman or man, or something in between." What is known as gender expression is "the expression of gender characteristics and behaviors that are socially understood as to convey masculinity, femininity, or androgyny, and includes dress, grooming, mannerisms, speech patterns and social interactions."
In 2016, the Canadian parliament passed bill C-16, which added both "gender expression" and "gender identity" as protected categories to the Canadian Human Rights Act and various provisions of the Criminal Code.
Among the influential opponents of the bill was author Gad Saad, an evolutionary behavioral scientist and a professor at Concordia University.
"Stunning & brave. These are the important problems to tackle. Remember, it is bigoted to presume that humans are a sexually reproducing species consisting of two default phenotypes. Only Nazis believe in such antiquated 'binary thinking,'" Saad mused sarcastically on Twitter Monday, mocking Air Canada's recent move.
Air Canada's response boasted of being named one of Canada's Best Diversity Employers for 2019.
Earlier this year, Canada allowed citizens who do not identify as male or female to mark 'X' instead of 'M' or 'F' on official legal documents like passports and citizenship certificates.
In the United States transgender ideology has come to the fore as it relates to employment. Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where a transgender-identifying male who presented as a woman demanded to be seen and referred to as female was fired.
The decision in the case, set to be released next year, will determine what will happen to sex-based rights and whether sex will be legally interpreted to include gender identity.
