Airline denies discriminating after gay dads denied entry to plane with their kids
An airline has denied that they discriminated against gay dads and their kids after they say they were denied family boarding rights.
Grant Morse, his husband Sam and their three kids were flying with Southwest from Buffalo, New York, to Fort Lauderdale in Florida over the weekend when they faced “horrific discrimination”.
The fathers, who have been together for 26 years, were with their twin three-year-old boys, five-year-old daughter and Grant’s 83-year-old mother.
They said they were denied access to early boarding via the family boarding area, which they said on Facebook was their usual route.
The dads wrote that they had not been considered a family.
But Southwest has hit back, saying that the incident had “nothing to do with discrimination”.
A statement given to the Huffington Post suggested that the reason they had been turned away was due to Grant’s mother being part of the group, and that she was advised to board separately.
The statement reads: “Our Operations Agent informed two parents that another member of their group was ineligible to board under Family Boarding and asked that she board in her assigned boarding group. This conversation in the boarding area had nothing to do with discrimination, we welcomed both parents to board the aircraft with their children.
“The parents expressed disappointment that the Family Boarding policy was not applicable to another member of their group. The two parents did not agree with our policy, and our Flight Crew worked to save seats together on the aircraft for the family as the conversation continued in the gate area.”
Earlier this year Ellen roasted United Airlines after a passenger was ejected from a flight.
Delta airlines phoned the police on gay rapper Mykki Blanco after a passenger sat next to the singer complained about their appearance.
Blanco, real name Michael Quattlebaum Jr, was flying from Toronto to Detroit when the passenger sat next to them had the airline phone the police.
