[Blog/Commentary] [USA] FAA amends rules about transgender pilots

[Stephanie Stevens]

Daily Kos, USA


Tue Aug 14, 2012 at 04:00 PM PDT

FAA amends rules about transgender pilots

by rserven <http://www.dailykos.com/user/rserven> for TransAction
<http://www.dailykos.com/blog/TransAction>


The Federal Aviation Administration has amended its Guide for Aviation
Medical Examiners
<http://transgenderequality.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/trans-pilots-allowed-to-fly-faa-updates-medical-requirements/>
to change the medical certification process for transpeople. The
psychological testing previously required transgender applicants to
take a battery of tests, including personality, projective, and
intelligence tests…believing, apparently, that being transgender
intrinsically caused one to be a potential safety risk. This resulted
in transgender pilots being grounded and even losing their jobs under
previous criteria.

The amended procedure will only require that transgender pilots
provide current clinical records including an evaluation from a
psychologist or psychiatrist, and a report on any surgery (if
applicable).

The new amendment is to Item 41 of the Guide
<http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/avs/offices/aam/ame/guide/media/guide.pdf>
, which covers the G-U System. It is listed right after Pregnancy.

Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and gender reassignment require a
complete review of the individual’s relevant medical history and
records. For initial consideration the Examiner must defer and submit
the following to AMCD or RFS:
A current status report to include:
All current medications, dosages, and side-effects; and
copies of all pertinent inpatient and outpatient medical records
pertaining to the individual’s GID diagnosis, work-up, and treatment.
Psychiatric and/or psychological evaluations by a board
certified psychiatrist and/or a licensed psychologist experienced in
transgender issues that includes an assessment of any substance abuse
or misuse. Neurocognitive testing is not required unless clinically
indicated.
Hospital and post-operative report from the surgeon if
individual has had surgery.

NOTE: If the individual refrains from surgery, no surgical report
is required. However, if surgery is elected at a later date, follow-up
reports from a psychiatrist and/or psychologist and the surgeon will
be required.

Response has been coming in slowly:

It was as though somebody had said, 'OK, we don't know a lot about
transgender people, but we think something might be wrong with them.'"
There's no particular reason to think that just because someone is
transgender or transitioning, they would have developed some kind of
cognitive deficit.

[The tests] put a lot of people through a lot of cost and effort.

--Harper Jean Tobin
<http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2012/08/13/faa-eliminates-unnecessary-testing-trans-pilots>
, NCTE

Pilots were often required to finance the testing procedure themselves.

This sends a positive signal that being trans shouldn't create
barriers to people being able to [perform] a highly-skilled job with a
lot of responsibility. We think this is going to make things a lot
easier and fairer all the way around.

--Tobin

The National Center for Transgender Equality would like to thank
Drs. George Brown and Randall Ehrbar for their expertise as well as
the FAA, the Obama Administration, the Transgender Law Center, the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Representatives Mike Honda
and Barney Frank for their work on this issue. NCTE will continue to
monitor this issue to ensure the new procedures are implemented in a
fair and sensible way.

In other news, there is a new app for your iPhone that some may find
useful, called TranSquat
<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/transquat/id521546602?mt=8> . Powered
by safe-2-pee <http://safe2pee.org/new/> , which is a national data
base of gender neutral restrooms, TranSquat locates nearby gender
neutral bathrooms for its user. Users are encouraged to add and share
new locations to help build the directory.


(c) Kos Media, LLC

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/14/1120096/-FAA-amends-rules-about-transgender-pilots