I would like to gloss MikeBaseball’s diary over on dKos with a “call to action”-related link. I urge readers to contact American Airlines and its spokesperson Tim Wagner to express concern over what the apparently bigoted attitude of member of an American Airlines crew towards two passengers who happened to 1) be of the same sex and 2) show affection.
The threat from the crew to land the plane–citing security concerns–if the two men didn’t stop “arguing” with a flight attendant seems highly exploitive and abusive, as well as condescendingly expressed, provided that events were accurately reported in this week’s The New Yorker. At the very least, Mr. Wagner’s insinuation that the two men were making passengers uncomfortable demands a clarification of American Airlines’ relevant policies.
Please read the rest of the diary after the flip; it may inform your e-mail to AA.
American Airlines overall has had a good record relative to corporate responsibility towards gay employees, and American is a visible sponsor of the Pride celebration in San Francisco. They had a large section in the NYC Heritage of Pride March in 2005, complete with a nearly Macy’s Parade-quality balloon shaped like a plane.
However, that positive record of the airline is all the more reason to contact American, which must be encouraged to continue to be a leader in treating gay employees and customers as equal in humanity and rights with heterosexual employees and customers.
The following are only excerpts from the article mentioned. I encourage readers to click-through to the article on The New Yorker’s site and examine the article in full.
“On August 22nd…Ralph Jackson ([seat]21A) and David Leisner (21B) were returning from two weeks in France, while Huffa Frobes-Cross (21F) had stopped over in Paris on his way back from South Africa. Assigned to seats 20A and 20B were George Tsikhiseli, a television journalist, and his writer boyfriend, Stephan Varnier.
…..
Shortly after takeoff, Varnier nodded off, leaning his head on Tsikhiseli. A stewardess came over to their row. “The purser wants you to stop that,” she said.“I opened my eyes and was, like, `Stop what?’ ” Varnier recalled the other day.
“The touching and the kissing,” the stewardess said, before walking away.
Tsikhiseli and Varnier were taken aback.
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In the row behind them were Leisner and Jackson.
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Leisner and Jackson, who were “astounded,” leaned forward to ask if they’d heard correctly.
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Tim Wagner, a spokesman for American, said that the stewardess’s injunction to the men was reasonable, and would have been made whether the couple was gay or straight. “Our passengers need to recognize that they are in an environment with all ages, backgrounds, creeds, and races. We have an obligation to make as many of them feel as comfortable as possible,” he said.
