David Cooley is a well-known gay businessman—he’s the founder and CEO of West Hollywood gay club, The Abbey—and last week he was flying from New York to Los Angeles when flight attendants told his partner to move from his Premium seat to the main cabin or, wait for it, get off the plane because another couple, a straight couple, wanted to sit together..
Cooley posted about the incident to his Facebook page.
“I have never been so discriminated against while traveling before. ... After my traveling companion and I had been seated in our assigned seats for a while, we were approached by the flight attendant and my companion was asked to move from his premium seat to coach, so a couple could sit together. I explained that we were a couple and wanted to sit together, [but] he was given a choice to either give up the premium seat and move to coach or get off the plane. We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane. I cannot believe that an airline in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask us to leave. We will never be flying Alaska Airlines or their recently purchased Virgin Airlines Group ever again. Thank you to Delta Air Lines for getting us home safe. If you are an #LGBT person, please spend your travel dollars with an LGBT friendly airline like Delta.”
A spokesperson for Alaska Airlines says:
“When boarding flight 1407 from JFK to LAX, a couple was mistakenly assigned the same seats as another couple in Premium Class. We reseated one of the guests from Premium Class in the Main Cabin. We are deeply sorry for the situation, and are investigating the details while communicating directly with the guests involved to try and make this right. Alaska Airlines has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind, and our employees value inclusion for our guests and each other.”
So, Alaska Airlines admits they made a mistake and double-booked a pair of seats and yet had no problem splitting up a gay couple so a straight couple could sit together?
Funny that, and funny that Alaska Airlines then issued another statement touting their diversity and support of the LGBTQ community.
Nice words, but your actions don’t match.
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I feel bad about what David Cooley went through, but he also is a snobby ass and gives me the willies from things I've heard.
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Those men on Animal Kingdom make me purrrrrrr
This isn't just a hot mess, this is a steaming, exploding diarrhea of a hot mess because they are desperate as hell to do as much damage as they possibly can to Democracy. You know it's bad when the Koch Brother (s) stop writing checks.
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Will the Vatican ever stop releasing Papal Bulls...?
ReplyDeleteThe Orca mother, as of yesterday, was still carrying the calf. She is falling behind her pod now. :-(
ReplyDeleteI LOVE THE LAST ONE!
ReplyDeleteI may just bury myself in episodes of Animal Kingdom.
ReplyDelete