Don't Wait To Ask, Just Tell

[amamba]

This thread seems perfectly appropriate to me, since it is about amtrak and the experiences that LBGT members have had while on the train.

I seem to recall that we have had other threads where women have specifically inquired as to whether they would feel safe while traveling alone. I don't see how this thread differs from that.

 

[OBS]

My thanks, also, for introducing this subject. As a 25 year Amtrak employee, I was thrilled a couple years ago, that since I am a NY resident, I was able to add my partner to my railpass,as well as to my health insurance (although I have to pay addl. taxes on that benefit.) Amtrak, as an employer, takes seriously their role ensuring that each employee is treated equally. Also thanks for providing the link for the employee website. I was not aware of it but will check it out.

 

[AnthonyM]

I also feel good that I now know that we will both fit on the lower bed since we have six nights in total on trains and I can't wait.

Just to be clear, if you've booked a Bedroom in the sleeping car, then you can probably fit on the lower bed if you like. However, if you've booked a Roomette in the sleeping car, you'll find things very tight even if you're both very skinny.

Definitely a bedroom. I couldn't go without a private bathroom and a bit of space and the bedrooms look nice and comfortable.

 

[the_traveler]

[AU Member speaking]

Just remember that a server on Amtrak (or at any other location) can provide either good or bad service! You would not know if they are straight, gay or lesbian unless they come out and tell you.

Thus, by that statement, we should not allow any threads about good or bad Amtrak employees, unless the poster has asked (and it can be verified) that the employee is straight! That seems to be what those who say that this thread is inappropriate for AU are saying!

I say we treat all human beings as human beings!

 

[the_traveler]

In my post #47 above, I mentioned "Freedom of Speech". That was wrong.

Because AU is a privately owned and operated site, and not publicly owned, the Freedom of Speech rule does not apply. But I still hope that we can treat all human beings as human beings never the less!

 

[Montanan]

As another member of the "family" that's being discussed here, I just wanted to add my words of thanks for the creation of this thread, and the supportive comments from the majority of those who have posted. I do think it's a valid topic for a forum such as this ... and I also think that all in all, the subject's not really all that big a deal. And it's becoming less and less of a big deal all the time, which is extremely cool.

 

[NE933]

So that would be a discussion appropriate for that kind of forum (businesses friendly to GLBT), but has little to do with trains.

I shall want any person or otherwise who operates trains to be GLBT friendly otherwise I wouldn't be able to enjoy it.

 

[New Lou]

I shall want any person or otherwise who operates trains to be GLBT friendly otherwise I wouldn't be able to enjoy it.

I would have to disagree.

Honestly, it is unnecessary for either of you to know the sexual opinions of the other. As long as that person does his/her job and does not treat you any differently, his/her sexual preferences and opinions should not matter when it comes to train travel.

I want the people on the train to be PEOPLE friendly, regardless of their religious, moral and ethical ideas.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I shall want any person or otherwise who operates trains to be GLBT friendly otherwise I wouldn't be able to enjoy it.

I would have to disagree.

Honestly, it is unnecessary for either of you to know the sexual opinions of the other. As long as that person does his/her job and does not treat you any differently, his/her sexual preferences and opinions should not matter when it comes to train travel.

I want the people on the train to be PEOPLE friendly, regardless of their religious, moral and ethical ideas.

:hi: Well Said!

 

[Oldsmoboi]

As mentioned earlier, in the case of bedroom accommodations, sometimes it is necessary that sexuality is made known. In my experience, Amtrak staff has been nothing less than professional.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

If you like to travel by train then, by all means, welcome aboard. Gay, lesbian, straight, abstinent, whatever.

 

[NE933]

I want the people on the train to be PEOPLE friendly, regardless of their religious, moral and ethical ideas.

But that's the trouble: all to often "People Friendly " has a subterfuge of all people EXCEPT if you're gay or lesbian. I want the same thing as you in that sentence but sadly it is not always like that, and judging from the reaches of this thread there is still enough indifference to cause problems in the lives of people who work for rail, non rail groups. How do i know? I have religious and moral ideas that are generally decent I think but still run into homophobic forces. Therefore there is still much work ahead to make rail and the rest of the planet a livable place. A place where I can tell another man on an Amtrak coach "I love you" without a fellow rider calling us fa--ots, or stating wrongly that we are advertising our bedroom practices just from observing a nice string of words being spoken from one person to another.

Let me cite a discussion on another rail forum about a member on that website who statet he was Caucasian, was traveling in a bedroom with his wife who was a black woman, and a fellow dining car patron who asked him how he paid for his 'maid' to ride in the room, and whether he was watching her kids (the two children were THEIRS) as a favor to get a reduced price.

 

[NE933]

Amtrak is floating in one of the two Niantic spans in Connecticut that will serve a long long overdue replacement of the aging bridges, and let's hope Portal over Hackensack quickly follows! The Phase 1 scheme will adorn several Genesis diesels. Several Viewliner passenger couples enjoyed various expressions of affection in male/female, female/female, and male/male mixes. A southbound Keystone Express i was on was cabless, meaning it will either wye at the Philly Zoo subway OR the AEM-7 will have to have been repositioned.

Now let's play a game: arrange these commonplace events in the order in which they happened.

 

[Donctor]

Now let's play a game: arrange these commonplace events in the order in which they happened.

Is this serious?

 

[the_traveler]

Now let's play a game: arrange these commonplace events in the order in which they happened.

Is this serious?

[AU member speaking]

As serious as some of the (unfounded) comments that have been (or tried to be) posted to this thread!

I say let's get along with all HUMANS, whether they are white, black, male, female, single, couple, straight, gay, lesbian, young, old, etc... - if we did,there would not be a need for this thread!

 

[NE933]

Building a movable rail bridge is extremely serious (ask the structural engineers how many books they had to read in order to graduate into a credentialed, degree holding builder of structures that will carry billions of living souls over its lifetime). I want the bridges i cross to hold up, don't you? Our loved ones probably want the same too, so bridges are serious.

A railroad like Amtrak making a decision about painting its engine fleet into a well recognized anniversary based design is one involving public relations and cost. Checkmark, that's serious.

Passengers, and people in general, finding happiness is pretty serious too. Without it we'd all be sick.

Lastly, the Keystone train anomaly not only fills the cameras of railfans like us, but it impacts Amtrak's ability to stay on schedule without cutting into the lunch hour of the relieving engineer who must now do some extra manuevering in the absence of the cabcar. Yep, serious.

So what was the order of occurrence for these serious and important events? Well, they happened simultaneously, and each of the four items are ALL IMPORTANT and serious rail, and human, related items that directly relate to some, not all, of us train loving people.

 

[Reno89502]

I have to say that me and my partner have been traveling Amtrak for years, and we have never had any kind of problem from either passengers or crew. In fact, we are leaving Sunday for our trip on the Crescent from PHL to NOL. I do have to say that I have found this thread to be very interesting.

 

[guest]

Now let's play a game: arrange these commonplace events in the order in which they happened.

Is this serious?

[AU member speaking]

As serious as some of the (unfounded) comments that have been (or tried to be) posted to this thread!

I say let's get along with all HUMANS, whether they are white, black, male, female, single, couple, straight, gay, lesbian, young, old, etc... - if we did,there would not be a need for this thread!

. Which unfounded comments?

 

[the_traveler]

See post #5 (I'm going to take Amtrak to find other Catholics/Baptist/Jews/etc...

), post #42 and post #45 for instance. I think amamba said it best in post #51!

And I'm posting this as another AU member.

 

[Dan O]

I seem to recall that we have had other threads where women have specifically inquired as to whether they would feel safe while traveling alone. I don't see how this thread differs from that.

That seems more like a safety issure rather than if Amtrak will be friendly to women or not. I think this is more like will Amtrak be friendly to me and my 3 children or will they hassle me?

I must say from this thread, I would rather be LGBT than have children as quite often folks have mentioned they will bring young children along on a train trip and the responses have been on occasion much more insulting than anything I have read in this thread.

As mentioned earlier, in the case of bedroom accommodations, sometimes it is necessary that sexuality is made known. In my experience, Amtrak staff has been nothing less than professional.

I am not sure why sexuality would have to be made known. I would imagine adult brothers or sisters could share a room without giving any information regarding their sexuality.

Honestly, it is unnecessary for either of you to know the sexual opinions of the other. As long as that person does his/her job and does not treat you any differently, his/her sexual preferences and opinions should not matter when it comes to train travel.

I want the people on the train to be PEOPLE friendly, regardless of their religious, moral and ethical ideas.

I totally agree. I deal with the public quite a bit and some of the people lead lives that I do not entirely approve of but that is not an issue in how they are treated. Everyone deserves to be treated professionally.

Dano

 

[Ryan]

I must say from this thread, I would rather be LGBT than have children as quite often folks have mentioned they will bring young children along on a train trip and the responses have been on occasion much more insulting than anything I have read in this thread.

Good point.

As mentioned earlier, in the case of bedroom accommodations, sometimes it is necessary that sexuality is made known. In my experience, Amtrak staff has been nothing less than professional.

I am not sure why sexuality would have to be made known. I would imagine adult brothers or sisters could share a room without giving any information regarding their sexuality.

I'm not typically in the habit of sharing the lower bunk in a bedroom with my sister. My wife on the other hand...

 

[yarrow]

See post #5 (I'm going to take Amtrak to find other Catholics/Baptist/Jews/etc...

), post #42 and post #45 for instance. I think amamba said it best in post #51!

And I'm posting this as another AU member.

i think you have somewhat misconstrued, at least what i took as george's meaning. i don't appreciate my comment being referred to as unfounded. we both may have foundations for our views and still not agree. i must say i often find your posts flavored with a bit of pseudo-omnipotence. in our family we have one gay son and one transgender so let us go back to talking about trains

 

[Dan O]

I'm not typically in the habit of sharing the lower bunk in a bedroom with my sister. My wife on the other hand...

Poorly worded on my part. I meant brothers traveling together could share beds together. Sisters/cousins may do the same thing without anyone giving a thought to their sexuality just because they are the same sex.

Dano

 

[Ryan]

No, sorry. Poorly worded on my part. My point was that I would think it usual for two siblings (same sex or not) to share a lower in a bedroom when there is a perfectly serviceable upper right there.

My assumption would be (and maybe I'm way off base) is that two people sharing a lower are romantically involved, be it two guys, two gals or one of each.

See post #5 (I'm going to take Amtrak to find other Catholics/Baptist/Jews/etc...

), post #42 and post #45 for instance. I think amamba said it best in post #51!

And I'm posting this as another AU member.

i think you have somewhat misconstrued, at least what i took as george's meaning. i don't appreciate my comment being referred to as unfounded. we both may have foundations for our views and still not agree. i must say i often find your posts flavored with a bit of pseudo-omnipotence. in our family we have one gay son and one transgender so let us go back to talking about trains

Well by all means, share the foundation of your post!

 

[D.P. Roberts]

Before I put my two cents in, let me just say that I'm not directing this at any particular poster or comments.

1) Many (if not most) of the posts in this thread seem to be directed to whether this thread "ought" to exist or not. To me, if it's related to Amtrak travel, why not? The little bit of data in this thread isn't going to crash the server. I mean, come on - there are only about twenty kazillion threads about the Sunset service east of New Orleans, and that doesn't even exist! That horse has been shot, buried, dug up again, run over, burned up, left to rot, given a Viking burial at sea, and dragged up again. Surely, if this forum can support thousands of threads about an entirely fictional train service, we can allow one more thread many people seem to think is valid!

2) Look at the questions the OP and others have posted. This is not a "meet and greet" for people of certain beliefs or preferences. They're asking basic questions like "can we share a table or a room without snide comments from Amtrak staff?" It sounds like most people agree that GLBT travelers should be treated equally. Unfortunately, that theory doesn't always work out in practice, and I think it's very reasonable to ask "when" or "how often" such problems arise.