Tommy Dorfman is speaking out after an incident over the holiday weekend where a Delta Airlines employee repeatedly misgendered her before threatening to have her kicked out of an airport.
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Earlier this week, the 13 Reasons Why actor and transgender advocate posted a TikTok of an incident between herself and two Delta employees at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. She accused the employees of repeatedly and "intentionally" misgendering her, after one kept referring to her as "he" and using the wrong pronouns, despite being corrected.
“You just misgendered me again,” Dorfman says at one point in the video.
“It wasn’t intentional, but if you want to take it personal, that’s also OK," the employee responded. "You’re being condescending, and if you want to continue, I’ll have Port Authority escort you out the 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.”
Dorfman wrote in the video's caption that she "didn't realize it was condescending to flag a human rights violation after another employee misgendered me incessantly.” She deleted the TikTok after an onslaught of commenters, but it has since been re-uploaded by other accounts.
Delta said that it is “aware of the video and looking into the matter, including reaching out to our customer to understand more about what occurred," in a statement to Newsweek.
Dorfman has since addressed the incident through her Instagram story, where she urged people to always treat others with respect, and to educate themselves about pronouns. The actor then posted a link to pronouns.org, which she called an "excellent resource."
"Everyone deserves to be treated with respect, including transgender people," Dorfman wrote. "When we are mistreated, i.e. being misgendered repeatedly, trans people should be able to defend ourselves and advocate for our innate human dignity."
@tommy.dorfman on Instagram
