Originally Posted by
MissChief
So the SFO seated next to me has a beard and moustache, and is wearing a skirt with tights. And perhaps facial and eye make-up.
Well first off in all the searching I’ve done I can’t see that VS female pilots have skirts as a part of the uniform, so there’s little chance you’ll be sitting next to someone with a beard and a skirt. The only major I can see between the VS male and female pilot uniforms is a red scarf/tie for women vs a black neck tie for men. So in reality there’ll be little difference, and no one will be sitting next to you with a skirt and tights.
This will distract me, and at the same time make me feel disconcerted., This therefore becomes a serious safety issue.
Back some decades ago when gay pilots started to come out I’m pretty sure there would’ve been comments by existing pilots that gay pilots would’ve been a distraction, that it would become a safety issue and the exclusively hetero pilot group would prefer them to just stay in the closet. I know this because I entered aviation just at the end of the careers who had that view and they expressed it to me. But as gay pilots ‘came out’ people began to see there really wasn’t an issue, gay people were just normal people and safety issues weren’t present. It just took a bit of getting used to.
I could probably say the same for female pilots too, certainly they would’ve been accused of ‘distracting’ male pilots and causing safety issues. In fact one Australian airline was so resistant to this change they went to court and tried to legally argue that female pilots would be distracting and cause safety issues. But they (and the rest of aviation) was dragged into reality and people realised female people weren’t a safety issue.
But this latest 'virtue-signalling' by Virgin Atlantic is not a good thing at all. Some of my friends and former colleagues have gone so far as to say that it makes them feel sick.
There’s already a few trans and non gender conforming pilots already out there in the industry. I’ve noticed that the US seems to be where most of them are currently, probably just due to its size. There
seems to be less in the UK/Australia? But I know of one trans pilot, by all accounts a capable pilot and nice person. Some have said their previous perceptions about trans people have changed for the better when working with them.
A lot are active on the dreaded ‘social media’ so you can attack them for being narcissists. But they all seem to be able to fly the aircraft to the required standards, and a lot have been promoted to Captain.
So maybe as time progresses and more trans pilots feel comfortable coming out then perhaps some who have reservations against them will feel less ‘sick’ just by getting to know them better?