Virgin Atlantic Faces Criticism and Boycotts Over New Gender Policy

A Virgin Airways aircraft at Heathrow Airport in London, England, on Oct. 11, 2016. Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Virgin Atlantic is facing mounting criticism over its newly introduced gender identity policy, which will allow staff to wear gender-neutral uniforms and pronoun badges.

Male crew members, pilots and ground staff will have access to the female red skirt suit, while female staff will be able to wear the burgundy trousers designed for males.

The UK-based airline has also changed its ticketing system, which will allow people whose passports have gender-neutral markers—available in the US, India and Pakistan—to select U or X gender codes on their booking.

Virgin Atlantic also noted that passengers could “use the gender-neutral title, Mx” and pronoun badges, which they can request at the check-in desk.

“It’s so important that we enable our people to embrace their individuality and be their true selves at work,” said Juha Jarvinen, Virgin Atlantic’s chief commercial officer said.

“It is for that reason that we want to allow our people to wear the uniform that best suits them and how they identify and ensure our customers are addressed by their preferred pronouns.”

The advertisement for the new policy shows a male cabin crew wearing the Vivienne Westwood-designed skirt with red high heels walking on an airport runway.

In a media update on Wednesday, Virgin Atlantic dubbed itself as the “most inclusive airline in the skies” and called the new policy a “fluid approach.”

Criticism and Calls for a Boycott of Airline Are Mounting

However, the move has attracted a slew of criticism in the media and on social media, with many critics threatening to boycott the airline.

“I will never fly this airline,” said Sydney Watson, Australian political commentator, on Sep. 30

“Woke stupidity from Virgin Atlantic,” American foreign policy analyst Nile Gardiner tweeted on Sep. 30, “A sure way to lose customers who will go elsewhere.”

British media personality Darren Grimes argued Virgin Atlantic’s gender identity policy is “nothing more than corporate virtue signalling and attention seeking.”

“I highly doubt there was significant demand for this change to happen,” he noted in a Twitter post on Sep. 29.

Meanwhile, British social commentator Frank Furedi told the GBNews, that Virgin was “calling into question” thousands of years of traditional social norms.

“What’s really happening here is that the PR companies and the advertising agencies that advise Virgin are telling them to be edgy and to indicate how virtuous [they are] ... to make these noises to make these noises about essentially destroying the boundary between men and women,” he said.

“If they were genuinely interested in making their staff feel comfortable, they would just simply say everyone wears trouser suits, then there really isn’t any kind of distinction that people might feel unhappy about.”

He also said he believed that the policy was simply a new kind of branding exercise, carried out principally by the PR and advertising industry, and he warned that the new ad announcing the policy had an insidious message behind it all.

“I think what they’re doing is calling into question everything that people have lived by for thousands of years, and they turn that into a joke,” he said.

Virgin’s History of LGBTQ+ Activism

This is not the first time Virgin has been known to be involved in LGBTQ+ activism.

Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin group, bought Heaven nightclub in London in the 1980s which has a long association with London’s LGBTQ+ scene and hosts the long-running gay night G-A-Y.

On its website, the airline said it has sponsored Pride festivals, supported the pro-gay publication Attitude Magazine and actively promoted pro-LGBTQ+ laws.