Transgender Pilots Just Want To Fly

Acceptance of transgender pilots is improving in the aviation community but advocates say more progress is needed across visibility, communication, and understanding.

Thom Patterson

Thursday, June 30, 2022 at 09:15 AM ET

Verified

Pilot Tamsyn Waterhouse won a legal battle with the FAA over requirements for her third-class medical certificate. [Courtesy: Tamsyn Waterhouse]

Key Takeaways:

Transgender pilot Tamsyn Waterhouse successfully challenged discriminatory FAA medical certification requirements, leading to revised 2012 guidelines that eliminated unnecessary psychological testing for transgender pilots.
Despite this victory, transgender pilots continue to face discrimination, incivility, and feelings of isolation, especially within general aviation, highlighting the ongoing need for greater acceptance.
Advocacy organizations like the National Gay Pilots Association (NGPA) are actively working to educate the aviation industry, report incidents of transphobia, and promote equal rights and improved cultural understanding for LGBTQ+ pilots.

See a mistake? Contact us.

When Tamsyn Waterhouse’s father took her flying in his red and white Cessna 150 as a child growing up in Manitoba, Canada, he set her on a path toward becoming a professional pilot. What she didn’t know at the time was how challenging that journey would be.

By the time she was in graduate school, Waterhouse says she realized that she had to transition to female to be herself. The hurdles began a few years later as she was a pilot closing in on getting her IFR in California.