“Homophobic Airline?”
I read the funniest article on Zipadeeday.com’s travel section from Feb. 6, 2001. Now although the site guarantees the authenticity of their articles, regardless of whether this story is actually true, I just had to share it. This article is a reminder that sometimes strange things happen on vacations and the travel time is often a story in itself. I have Xd out the name of the Austrailia based airline to protect them in the event that this article is not completely accurate.
“It has been reported that an employee for XXX Airlines, who happened to have the last name of Gay, got on a plane recently using the company’s “free flight” offer for staff. However, when Mr. Gay tried to take his seat, he found it being occupied by a fare paying passenger.
So, not to make a fuss, he simply chose another seat. Unknown to Mr. Gay, another XXX flight at the airport experienced mechanical problems. The passengers of this flight were being re-routed to various other airplanes.A few were put on Mr. Gay’s flight and anyone holding a ‘free’ ticket was being ‘bumped’.
XXX officials, armed with a list of these ‘freebee’ ticket holders boarded the plane, as is the practice, to remove them in favor of fare paying passengers. Of course, Mr. Gay was not sitting in his assigned seat, as you may remember. So when the Ticket Agent approached the seat where Mr. Gay was supposed to be sitting, she asked a startled customer, “Are you Gay?” The man shyly nodded he was, at which point she demanded: “Then you have to get off the plane.”
Mr. Gay, overhearing what the Agent had said, tried to clear up the situation; “You’ve got the wrong man. I’m Gay!” This caused an angry third passenger to yell, “Hell! I’m gay too! They can kick us all off!” Confusion reined as more and more passengers began yelling that XXX had no right to remove gays from their flights.It is reported that XXX have refused to comment on the incident.”
Many weird things happen while traveling- but take them lightly, because they make for great stories later. I’d bet that many of the passengers on Mr. Gay’s flight told this story to their friends and families when talking about their trip, and I’d bet this story ended up next to their ticket stub in their trip scrapbook. So when you travel- keep an eye opened for excitement in even the most unexpected places!
