Lesbian couple’s flight from hell as drunk homophobe punches and calls them ‘faggots, dykes and poofters’
(Instagram/catfranke)
A lesbian couple has described their terror after enduring hours of verbal and physical abuse from a drunk homophobic passenger on a plane trip.
Cat Franke, 23, and Julz Evans, 26, were travelling from Melbourne to Perth on New Year’s Eve – just weeks after Australia legalised same-sex marriage – to visit family, according to The Age.
Cat posted on Instagram before the flight, writing: “Bringing in the new year 3 times tonight over 3 time zones with my love.”
(Instagram/catfranke)
But the journey turned into a nightmare as they were subjected to a barrage of homophobic attacks from an “intoxicated, arrogant man” sitting right behind the couple.
Cat posted about the incident – which she said lasted for hours – on Facebook, saying that it was the “most awful verbal abuse and discrimination I have ever experienced”.
Cat wrote that “when I tried to share a kiss with my partner he pressed his face right up to the gap between our two chairs and started mumbling ‘kiss, come on I wanna see some lesbians kiss’.
(Instagram/catfranke)
“My partner and I felt so uncomfortable because of this pervert we immediately stopped our conversation and sat as still as possible, hoping he would leave us alone.
“Unfortunately because we had not met his request he began his homophobic slurs, singing loudly and also mumbling about how we were faggots, dykes and poofters.
“He then began to kick and punch my partner’s chair while saying how we weren’t equals and rambled about his beliefs about marriage.”
And, she added, staff on board the Jetstar flight failed to intervene, and even “continued to accept his money for about 5-7 drinks”.
(Instagram/catfranke)
She said that the man “became so intoxicated he could barely walk straight or follow instructions. You could imagine how much this helped with his filter.”
She and Julz were terrified, she said.
“I feared for mine and my partner’s lives on that plane, we were physically trapped with someone who wanted to hurt us and make sure we had a terrible time.”
(Facebook/cat franke)
Cat added that “the punching continued for hours and my partner could not lean back against their seat.
“They had to lean forward against the seat in front, even upon landing.
“Your staff were aware of his behaviour and did absolutely nothing to even try to help the situation.”
(Facebook/cat franke)
Cat continued: “My partner and I had not done anything to deserve to have such verbal abuse and hate spat at us.
“We sat there in silence unable to communicate or even hold hands over the New Year’s Eve flight out of fear of being physically harmed as well.
(Facebook/cat franke)
“I started off my year shaking and in tears from fear and from how much the verbal abuse had hurt me.”
A spokesperson for Jetstar told Fairfax Media that the airline does not tolerate discrimination of any kind, and that the case would be submitted to the behaviour review panel.
Read Cat’s full post here:
