SEPTA passengers can expect a change on their TransPasses next year. The card will no longer feature any gender stickers.
Riders Against Gender Exclusion (RAGE) made the announcement in a statement released on Thursday which SEPTA confirmed.
RAGE first began organizing to remove the gender stickers back in 2009, claiming they made it difficult for transgender and gender non-conforming SEPTA passengers. The organization collected signatures on a petition against the stickers and also staged several protests, including a drag show at SEPTA station and an interruption of a SEPTA public hearing in which they read their Rider’s Bill of Rights.
RAGE stated the following in Thursday’s press release:
Riders whose gender expression does not match the sticker on their pass – for instance, transsexual men and women who are not living in one gender full-time, and genderqueer people who do not present themselves as distinctly male or female – have been harassed by drivers, outed as transgender to other riders putting their personal safety at risk, and have even had legitimate passes confiscated.
Max Ray, founding member of RAGE, claims SEPTA made the decision because of the group’s collective efforts. A SEPTA spokesman told NBC10 the decision was unrelated to RAGE’s protest however. Instead he said it was made simply because there wasn’t a need for any stickers on the new preloaded card.
TransPasses are currently for an unlimited number of rides. SEPTA says the passes have gender stickers on them in order to prevent pass sharing. The new TransPasses are set to debut in late 2013, according to SEPTA.
