SEPTA Gender Sticker Controversy: Is It Time For Philly To Cut The Pursestrings?

It is a new year, and when it comes to issues surrounding the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), not much tends to change. This includes a discriminatory policy in which gender stickers are placed on monthly and weekly passes with the intention of “fraud prevention” and the unintended consequences that occur for members of the trans*/gender variant community. The powers that be within the SEPTA borg claim that they will be switching to a system of fare cards, much like what is used in New York City, thus eliminating the need for stickers on the passes, which are “stand-alone”. Below is a picture of a typical pass (this is my pass, note the orange F on the upper left hand side, males get a green M):

Now, regardless of this new modernized fare system’s implementation (which everyone in SEPTA claims will be happening soon, but it appears to be still years off), the fact of the matter is, this gendering of transit instruments is unique to SEPTA. Just across the river in New Jersey, they have stand-alone monthly and weekly passes which not only do not have any form of gender marking, but they can even be purchased from vending machines. Also, while in Pittsburgh over the summer, I used a male-identified friend’s pass to get into town; needless to say, there was no gender sticker there.

The main impediment to changing this unnecessary and discriminatory policy is the fact that SEPTA, unlike most other transit authorities, is an organ of state government with the five counties served (Philadelphia, Delaware, Montgomery, Bucks, and Chester) contributing only 2 board members and a budget to the office. Therefore, as I went to city council in April and watched as SEPTA’s bigwigs went in with their budget and several members of city council questioned them on gender stickers, I began to ponder this; should Philadelphia City Council refuse funding to SEPTA until they remove the gender stickers.

Sherrie Cohen, a lesbian activist who ran a serious bid for City Council at large, and got the support of a local PAC, had this to say:

We cannot permit SEPTA to continue discriminating against transgender and gender nonconforming people for the next 3 to 5 years while it modernizes its fare collection system.

I would demand that Philadelphia, which pays the lion share of SEPTA’s local subsidy, not make its annual payment until SEPTA removes the gender stickers from transpasses.

By comparison, most members of city council, when approached about this issue, stated their opposition, but stopped short of stating they would stop funding this policy.

Perhaps I am not some crazy trollette when I advocate for city council to refuse to give money to a discriminatory agency. Currently, I am in contact with the office a member of city council to get a resolution against this, and it may be happening soon, but I would like to see council do more than just a resolution that, although will be a nice gesture, is still non-binding at the end of the day. SEPTA’s budget generally comes up in the spring, and I believe that it would be wonderful if trans*/gender variant activists and their allies turned the heat up on city council to not only give lip service to our community on this pressing issue, but to take action, even if it could be viewed as” extreme”; this action being the refusal of any more of city tax monies to SEPTA until they have no more gender stickers on their passes.

Yes, public transportation is a necessity, and I am a huge fan of such (especially since I sold my car shortly after moving to this dense city), however, a discriminatory policy negates any good that any agency, authority, or organization may provide. Consider the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycotts of the 1950s, sure, the Montgomery bus system provided a valuable service to its residents, but when the African-American community was targetted with discriminatory policies, civil rights activists were not debating the merits of public transit, rather, they were focused on turning up the heat to stop the discriminatory policies on their respective public transit systems.

We’ve got to hold our elected officials accountable and make sure they can do their best to ensure people’s human rights within their power, and while Philadelphia cannot directly control SEPTA’s affairs; money still talks here, and we need to make this gender stick BS walk.

-Jordan Gwendolyn Davis