#washington transit

[socialjusticeandfandomthings]

Please look at my new favorite video @amtrak-official you have a true train fan in your midst

[liberalsarecool]

Cancel cars, improve cities.

[istandonsnowpiles]

Metro Tunnels

[gumjrop]

Abeni Jones is a writer and artist.

“Male or female?”

I’ve been “randomly” selected by TSA for additional screening — again. Each time, the agent asks me whether I want a man or woman to conduct the pat-down. But what they’re really asking is: What are you?

In 2018, I officially changed the gender marker on my passport from M to F. By that point, I had socially transitioned, undergone top surgery and been on hormone replacement therapy for years. But updating the marker didn’t make travel easier. Traveling while transgender only became more difficult.

I’m well over 6 feet tall. Unless I decide to dress extremely femme and put on a full face of makeup — to then sit for hours on a cramped, sweaty airplane — the F on my passport actually invites extra scrutiny. Because I don’t always “pass,” it frequently outs me as trans.

The U.S. State Department, in acknowledgement of the roadblocks such as these that trans, gender non-conforming, non-binary and intersex people routinely experience while traveling, recently announced that applicants for passports will soon have the option to choose X as their gender marker as an alternative to M or F.

It’s a nice symbol of support, and putting an X on a passport might really mean something to a select few. But given the trouble that often accompanies being out as non-binary, the move won’t “advance inclusion” as much as the department’s announcement claims. If the State Department really wanted to take a step forward, there’s an easier, cheaper and more powerful option: remove gender from passports altogether.

Now, the X marker could be affirming for non-binary people who do not experience or anticipate persecution related to their gender identity. It could also work for people traveling exclusively through airports that have done an excellent job training their staff about gender and the meaning of the X marker, and that have policies in place to make travel smooth for gender-diverse travelers.

These hypothetical people and places, however, will be rare. More likely, the X will cause more of the hassle trans people have become accustomed to. Every once in a while, I do “pass” with the F on my passport. If I had an X, though, extra scrutiny would be practically guaranteed. I asked a handful of non-binary friends about the upcoming change, and every one of them indicated that willingly outing themselves on their passport would mean inviting danger into their travel experience.

This is especially relevant given the waves of anti-trans legislation being passed in the United States, and even more so when international travel is considered. Trans rights are imperiled domestically, but they are in even worse shape throughout much of the world. Having an M or F — especially if one doesn’t always “pass” — can cause trouble for a transgender traveler; carrying a passport with an X on it is likely to cause more.

So why mark gender at all? Pointless gendering is a well-documented phenomenon when it comes to consumer products, but less questioned is the requirement to assert one’s gender on endless forms. Is there a legitimate reason anyone other than my doctor needs to know my gender? Does my dentist need to know? My credit-card issuer? The library? The veterinary clinic? The airline or TSA agent?

After I changed the gender marker on my driver’s license, my car insurance provider informed me that updating my records would raise my rates. I was the same person, driving the same car, with the same record. They couldn’t explain the logic of the policy – but when it comes to reporting one’s gender, logic is often absent.

Some will argue that marking gender helps institutions know how to refer to clients and customers. But the simplest and most affirming way to do that is to just ask for pronouns or honorifics instead.

The Netherlands recently took steps to remove gender from state-level legal documents; Germany and Canada have experimented with similar efforts. The United States could do the same. Stripping gender from passports would let Americans go through security or customs simply as people, without having to justify anything. Instead of classifying ever more complex slices of gender identity, we could question the primacy of gender in our lives altogether.

It might take a while. Gender is personal, meaningful and relevant to most of us; it’ll take a cultural shift to realize it can still be those things without showing up on all our documents. For now, having a passport option that reflects non-binary identity, even with the accompanying trouble, is at least better than offering only M or F. Travelers can weigh the risks and decide what works best for them.

In the future, we may live in a society that doesn’t require trans people to out ourselves at the airport. When a traveler’s gender, and that of the TSA agent who pats them down, is no longer a concern. When everyone can travel with safety and dignity. When there’s no more loaded “male or female?” — and instead, just “have a nice flight.”

Jones, Abeni. “Opinion | an X Gender on My Passport Won’t Make Traveling While Transgender Easier - The Washington Post.” The Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/10/transgender-passport-x-gender-option-risks/.

[searchsystem]

Order / The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) / Sign / 2024

[xoverit]

Tacoma, Washington. (September 2024)

[barstoolblues]

scenes from the last week of summer, 2023

[urbanism-and-transit]

Opinions on the DC metro? (I love it so far)

pretty good system! despite being from the northwest, it was the first train i ever went on as a toddler, so i hold it very close to my heart. it has pretty good coverage and doesnt sprawl too much. pretty impressive frequencies for its system size, too. and while i personally prefer individually designed stations, the essentially prefab brutalism of the metro was a great way to save on costs, and its a bit surprising more systems haven't followed that style. overall, an A tier system in my opinion - nico

[eopederson2]

Staircase with bicycle theme art, Roosevelt Station, Sound Transit, Seattle,2024.

[maplesphotos]

Sorry it's been a while. I will try to remember to post here more often :3

2024.09.20

[trainsgenderfoxgirl2816]

do you train spot? If so can you send me some interesting photographs you’ve taken of trains you like. What’s your favorite train and why? For me I have a love and passion for steam locomotives and the various drive wheel configurations we saw as the technology progressed. I love the new diesel electric drivetrains of modern trains but nothing can beat the appearance of a steam engine

Yes when I can but unfortunately the Railroad lines are on the other side of the city from where I live

[akayna]

Took the morning train to Vancouver, BC

Bruh, what a lovely way to travel across the border! @amtrak-official 💚

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Eliza Mondegreen

Published: Sept 12, 2023

First comes the pushback, then the pullback. 

Yesterday, the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital announced that doctors there will no longer prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to children and adolescents. This decision follows months of controversy and comes in the wake of a new law that just went into effect in Missouri, which limits hormonal and surgical interventions for gender transition to patients over the age of 18.

Under a “grandfather clause” in the new law, the Transgender Center could have continued to prescribe puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to current patients. However, it decided to back away from these interventions altogether:

We are disheartened to have to take this step. However, Missouri’s newly enacted law regarding transgender care has created a new legal claim for patients who received these medications as minors. This legal claim creates unsustainable liability for health-care professionals and makes it untenable for us to continue to provide comprehensive transgender care for minor patients without subjecting the university and our providers to an unacceptable level of liability.  - WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY TRANSGENDER CENTER

The Center first came under intense scrutiny earlier this year, when former case manager Jamie Reed blew the whistle on what she had come to see as dangerous practices within the clinic. In an article for The Free Press, Reed reported that: 

“During the four years I worked at the clinic as a case manager—I was responsible for patient intake and oversight—around a thousand distressed young people came through our doors. The majority of them received hormone prescriptions that can have life-altering consequences—including sterility. I left the clinic in November of last year because I could no longer participate in what was happening there. By the time I departed, I was certain that the way the American medical system is treating these patients is the opposite of the promise we make to ‘do no harm.’ Instead, we are permanently harming the vulnerable patients in our care.” - JAMIE REED

Reed catalogued “red flag” cases to keep track of “the kind of patients that kept my colleague and me up at night” and documented cases of youth with serious mental health struggles rushed onto life-altering drugs and even undergoing surgeries they soon regretted. The Transgender Center rejected Reed’s assessment and conducted their own internal investigation — an investigation in which they never bothered to speak to Reed — before declaring her allegations “unsubstantiated”. 

But the case for youth gender transition has been unravelling this year, under pressure from state officials and legislators and increased scrutiny from the media. At the end of August, St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Steven Ohmer allowed Missouri’s ban on hormonal and surgical interventions for youth to go into effect, writing that the evidence for youth transition “raises more questions than answers”. 

Hence the “unsustainable liability” Washington University cited in its decision to pull back from this area of healthcare. That’s because Missouri’s new law also extended the period of time former patients have to sue for damages to 15 years. Perhaps, when the Washington University investigated themselves, they found more merit to Reed’s allegations than they were willing to acknowledge publicly. They fear being made to pay for it. 

Medical scandals tend to end quietly: the “chemical lobotomy” phased out the lobotomy-lobotomy. The Satanic Panic choked not on its own absurdities but in courtrooms and insurance offices. Public reckonings are few and far between. “Unsustainable liability” may be the beginning of the end for youth gender transition. 

==

How could there be an "unacceptable level of liability" when all of this "gender affirming care" is based on evidence, of which there is definitely plenty, and "the science," which is definitely reliable and high quality? Isn't it "life-saving"? We were told it was "life-saving," right? Wasn't it "life-saving"? How can anything be an "unacceptable liability" when people aRe LiTeRaLLy dYiNg!!1!

If all of these drugs and cosmetic surgeries and amputations and other sex trait modifications were so well evidenced, so ethical and so necessary, it should be an absolute doddle in the insurance office and the courtroom. It all just needs to be explained clearly and people will agree. Right? Because detransition is rare, regret is rare, complications are rare, "kids know who they are," all the medical experts agree, and there's no legitimate concern, just "far-right" bigots conducting their "genocide." Right?

I said some time ago that only the lawsuits would stop it in the US and Canada. It looks like that's begun. Hospitals aren't willing to put their bottom line ahead of, or their necks on the chopping block for, adherence to this religion.

[istandonsnowpiles]

LN CAR DESTINATION

[eopederson]

Sound Transit Westlake Station, Seattle, 2019.

[babyseraphim]

@essektheylyss seattle commuter moodboard