New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is changing the way it communicates with customers—and will be getting rid of gender-specific announcements on the subway, PIX11 reports.
Instead of saying “ladies and gentlemen”, subway announcements will now address people as “passengers”, “riders” or “everyone”.
“We’re completely changing the way we communicate with our customers,” said MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein.
“The basic language of New York City transit is changing. It’s about speaking in a more human tone, giving our customers clearer, better information, and really talking to them like they’re people," he added.
In July, the London Tube scrapped its “ladies and gentlemen” announcements, commenting that it wanted to make “everyone feel welcome on our transport network”.
"Language is extremely important to the lesbian, gay, bi and trans community, and the way we use it can help ensure all people feel included,” UK charity Stonewall commented.
"We welcome gender neutral announcements to be rolled out across TfL (Transport for London) as it will ensure that everyone - no matter who they identify as - feels accounted for.”
United States LGBT+ organisation GLAAD praised the MTA on Twitter, writing: "Shout out to @MTA for thinking #BeyondTheBinary. It means a lot to LGBTQ straphangers."
