Verdict: Bahn must offer gender-neutral salutation – Panorama

The world of Deutsche Bahn usually works quite binary. A train is either on time or late, a conductor is either gracious or pedantic, and those wishing to book a ticket must indicate that they are either a “gentleman” or a “lady”. Since Tuesday afternoon, one of these certainties has once again become obsolete. The Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court agreed with a person who felt discriminated against by the railways. Because René_ Rain Hornstein, as the person calls himself, is addressed by the train as “Mr.”, although she identifies as non-binary. The court has now decided that the Deutsche Bahn sales subsidiary should refrain from discriminating against the plaintiff with this false form of address from January 2023. In addition, the railway has to pay Hornstein compensation of 1,000 euros.

The judgment provides the latest example of the sluggishness of the railways, after all, the Federal Constitutional Court made it clear in 2017 that in Germany there must also be a gender statement beyond man and woman, a “third option”. Since then, there have been repeated judgments that have obliged companies to communicate with their customers in a way that is considered gender-sensitive. With the long-distance bus company Flixbus, for example, it is possible to simply select “person” as the salutation.

On the other hand, the judgment raises the question of the extent to which a transport company needs to address its customers in a tailor-made manner. Of course, every human being has the right, if he is spoken to, to be spoken to properly. Only, when booking a train ride, gender is just as relevant as shoe size is for ordering an ice cream sundae and bicep size is for a visit to the zoo.

“Hi!” instead of “Dear…”

A call to Michael Martens. He is the founder of “Fairlanguage”, a consulting company that helps companies to communicate in a contemporary and “fair” manner. One of the customers is the car manufacturer Audi, which aims to update its language internally and externally. According to Martens, a company with the motto “Vorsprung durch Technik” simply has a “credibility problem” if it communicates as it did in the 1980s. But he is also aware of the concerns of companies that customers would be missing something if they were only addressed with “Hello Klaus Müller” and no longer with “Dear”. This is unjustified, however, because classic speeches can continue to exist, in addition to an additional non-binary “Hello”. What’s more, why shouldn’t customers choose how they are called? Whether “Frau Prof.” or “Lord Magister” or “Lord of Darkness”. Martens believes that making this possible is up-to-date.

At Deutsche Bahn, it is emphasized that “diversity” is of course a “top priority”. The changeover is just “in some cases technically easier than in others”. This may come as a surprise to those who use the internet, after all, other companies can do it too. But what is also true: For addressing non-binary people, there is nothing that corresponds to a kind of DIN standard. Or as a Bahn spokesman puts it: “The ideas even within the affected group of people are currently still very different.”

Until there is a standard, Deutsche Bahn will also experiment and will have to deliver by 2023 at the latest. In any case, the whole thing is only really regrettable for the groups of people who are data analysts and marketing specialists. Because data that cannot be classified into rigid categories is less useful in market research. For example, to find out whether and why men book their train journeys differently than women.

Thought utopian, the verdict, which sounds exhausting, could lead to a slimming down. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which has been in force since 2018, has led to a multiplication of daily mouse clicks due to the cookie banners that have been present ever since. Kindly, the GDPR also provides for “data minimization” among other things. Collected data, it is said, must be “adequate for the purpose”. Which is not the case with the constellation gender/train journey. And with that: Good day to everyone.

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