Calling on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to cease the use of gender identification stickers on transportation passes.

WHEREAS, Since the 1970s, SEPTA has placed gender stickers on its weekly and monthly passes to reduce swapping between males and females

; and

WHEREAS,

SEPTA will stop utilizing

the gender stickers once the new fare collection system is installed over the next several years

; and

WHEREAS, SEPTA sells weekly and monthly transit passes to passengers. Each passenger must choose either a “male” or “female” pass, marked by gender stickers; and

WHEREAS, The policy exists to save money for SEPTA, since it makes pass sharing, a type of fraud, more difficult; and

WHEREAS, Gender stickers were made and used to reduce the amount of passengers sharing a transpass; and

WHEREAS, SEPTA also issues gender-specific reduced-fare cards for seniors and the disabled

; and

WHEREAS,

SEPTA employees used the gender specific stickers to determine whether or not a specific passenger has the right to use that particular pass based on their physical appearance; and

WHEREAS, Transgender people are those whose psychological self ("gender identity") differs from the social expectations for the physical sex they were born with; and

WHEREAS, Transgender passengers wrongly identified by SEPTA employees are subject to pay an extra fare, have their weekly transpass confiscated and/or are subject to humiliation and harassment by employees and other passengers; and

WHEREAS, Such actions by SEPTA and its employees is a form of discrimination against transgender people; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby call on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to cease the use of gender identification stickers on transportation passes.

End