Transgender/non-binary/gender non-conforming is the implication as I read it.
I meant "people like me," as in "people like me." I don't fit the cookie cutter. I'm a trash fish. I don't come from money, or even middle class. I bought my first suit ever for an airline interview.
Airline interviews appear to be designed to screen for white collar people with a certain type of charisma. Doesn't mean "only rich people get hired," but prep has taught me that it's ultimately a roleplaying event.
But any event where you're primarily telling stories is a measure of sociability, nothing more. You're playing the role of the humble, honest person who has learned from their mistakes and grown, and wants nothing more than to be a pilot for $AIRLINE_THAT_IS_INTERVIEWING_THEM.
And you may actually be a humble, sincere, honest person who has learned from their mistakes and grown, and wants nothing more than to be a pilot for !$, but that's not enough. You have to be able to
demonstrate that by telling stories and talking yourself up in a humble, sincere, honest, resilient way, rather than letting your reputation and the opinion of those you've flown with speak for your character, and your qualifications speak for your experience.
I believe that I'm good at what I do, and that's reinforced by what people I fly with tell me. Is it objectively true? No idea. Am I the sort of person that the major airlines want? Obviously not. Am I going to magically change into that person the next time they interview me? No, I'm just me. If they hit the point where they're willing to hire me, it's not that I've become better, somehow, it's that their standards have fallen to that point, or I managed to "trick" them into seeing me that way.
That is what I mean by "people like me."
But yeah, when I get misgendered by interviewers who don't apologize or correct themselves the next time after I politely correct them, yeah, I mean, I do wonder about that, too.