Traveling While Trans

I am always a little leery about traveling when you are trans, saying that it is “Gay” tour does really mean much to me.

Courting Transgender Tourists
New York Times
By DIANE DANIEL
September 16, 2015

Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has been courting gay and lesbian travelers for nearly two decades, an effort that most recently included a marriage-equality wedding promotion.

This year the city became one of the country’s first destinations to market to transgender travelers, with a new tourism campaign, and for the first time will host the Southern Comfort Conference, the largest transgender conference in the country, with about 1,000 attendees. (The 25th gathering begins Sept. 29.)

Yes, but what will happen when you leave your hotel? And just what does “Gay Friendly” mean?

Q. How has marketing to gay travelers changed since Fort Lauderdale started its outreach efforts in 1996?
A. At first, it was too risky to use the word “gay,” so we used “rainbow.” We started with a budget of $35,000, which has grown to over $1 million. We now welcome 1.3 million L.G.B.T. travelers who spend approximately $1.5 billion in the area.

How did you decide to reach out specifically to the transgender market?
It was during a run less than two years ago that I really started to think about the T in L.G.B.T. It’s really the forgotten T. I realized I knew nothing about transgender travelers, and, as a gay man, I knew nothing about the transgender community. I researched and saw they had this conference that had been in Atlanta for 24 years, and I contacted their president, Lexi Dee. No one had ever courted them or paid them any attention before. They liked our commitment of raising the bar for trans inclusion. Around the same time, I organized a round-table discussion with some national leaders and also met with the research firm Community Marketing & Insights to put a transgender travel study together, because there had never been one.

What did you learn from the survey?
We found that 62 percent of transgender people travel alone, many because they’re “stealth” — often they have a partner who has no idea they’re transgender. The Southern Comfort Conference is mostly male to female and that’s what we’ve looked at. Female to male blend easier; male to female often don’t. By far their biggest concerns were physical and verbal violence and a lack of gender-neutral restrooms. Unlike the gay market, trans travelers are more in line with budget travelers, without a lot of disposable income.

Are they prepared for a six foot six trans woman, or are they more prepared for a Laverne Cox or a Caitlyn Jenner? I agree that “their biggest concerns were physical and verbal violence,” I believe that visual non-conformity is a risk factor in causing anti-trans bias and I don’t believe that the travel industry understands that.

What are your recourse if you’re harassed while traveling? Well just by chance I received a travel brochure and in fine print in the back of the catalog it says,

ARBITRATION I agree that any dispute concerning, relating, or referring to this contract, the brochure, or any literature, concerning to my trip, or the trip itself, shall be resolved exclusively by binding arbitration…  The arbitrator and not any federal, state, or local court, or agency shall have exclusive authority to resolve any dispute relating to…

You got that? You will not be protected by any anti-discrimination laws, you surrender your rights to sue in court.

So how comfortable are you to traveling while trans?