Rising to fame through the teenage book-to-Netflix (NFLX) -) adaption "13 Reasons Why" and later the comedy miniseries "Love in the Time of Corona," trans actress Tommy Dorfman has talked about her experience with Delta Air Lines (DAL) -) to her significant social media following in a since-deleted TikTok video.
"When you try to advocate for yourself at @delta and are met with even more transphobia and threats of being arrested at LaGuardia," Dorfman, who came out as trans in 2021 and uses she/her pronouns, wrote in the caption to the video.
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The short video shows Dorfman interacting with two Delta boarding agents at the New York airport. One is heard telling another passengers to wait to be served "while she's talking" before correcting himself to say "while he's talking."
'If you want to take it personal,' Delta employee heard saying
“You just misgendered me again, multiple times, both of you have," Dorfman is heard saying in the video.
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"It wasn't intentional but if you want to take it personal that's also okay," the worker tells Dorfman in response before saying that they can "have port authority to escort you out of this building right this moment if you want to play that game with me. Would you like to continue three days before Christmas? I really don't mind."
The airport workers are also heard repeatedly telling Dorfman to "just get on the flight."
While she later deleted the video, Dorfman said that she told the employee that she would show the video to her million followers and "Tristan, the employee, said he was fine with me posting this."
Delta says it is 'aware of the the video and looking into the matter'
"Didn't realize it was condescending to flag a human rights violation after another employee misgendered me incessantly," Dorfman wrote further in the caption.
The video was picking up significant traction online amid both Dorfman's fans and those outraged by the gate agents' behavior, but Dorfman did not elaborate on why she ended up deleting it. Delta, meanwhile, has been telling media outlets that they "are aware of the video and looking into the matter, including reaching out to our customer to understand more about what occurred."
The issue of transphobia on airlines periodically arises at airports across the country in different iterations. In 2022, transgender advocates accused Canadian air carrier WestJet of not allowing people of X gender (Canada has made it possible to have people who identify as neither male nor female to have this in their passports since 2019) to enter it when booking flights online while United Airlines (UAL) -) became the first airline to allow travelers to identify as "non-binary" in 2019.
"TSA recognizes the concerns that some members of the transgender/non binary/gender nonconforming traveling public have with screening technology and certain security screening procedures at the nation’s security checkpoint," the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) currently says on its website over the check-in question. "TSA is committed to ensuring all travelers are treated with respect and dignity. Screening is conducted without regard to a person's race, color, sex, gender, gender identity, national origin, religion, or disability."
