Leisha Hailey was kicked off plane for lesbian kiss

[Cin]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertai...-1226147905568

I'm not big on PDAs. Never have been.

But I don't think everyone has to be like me.

Yet there is a line that shouldn't be crossed.

However, the problem is the line is different for everyone.

And it is in a different place depending on whether you are gay or straight.

Since the airline claimed the issue was one of degree I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. If the degree of PDA was the problem for this airline or really for any airline, then surely heterosexual couples have had their fair share or at least SOME share of incidents where they stepped over the line. So I googled heterosexual couples tossed off planes for excessive kissing and got more stories about gay couples. I tried a different approach and googled has a heterosexual couple been admonished for overly sexual behavior and didn't put any more information just to see what issues hetero couples have surrounding PDA. But I just got more stuff about homosexuals.

It's hard to accept the airlines claim that it wasn't about gender.

What do people think about public displays of affection and the different standards for gays and straights?

[The_Lady_Snow]

Yeah see I don't get this if one has to listen to the 3 college girls behind them yip and squeal about their drinking and how they lost their phone in the ocean than certainly I can kiss my partner if I chose. If I gotta listen to someone's spoiled ass crying 4 year old crumb cruncher who's disrupting my music time I as a paying customer I should have the right to cuddle up to my boy:girl on the plane..

[Dominique]

I heard this on the radio. Of course the shock jocks were having a field day with the story.

Airlines employ alot of *folks like us* i/e meaning alot of diversity amongst them. Although they do ask their employees to conduct themselves properly. Very strict codes of conduct. So I have two sets of thought on this.

The passengers were misbehaving so inappropiately, and wouldn't listen to reasoning, therefor had to go.

Or, far stretch but possible. They were an embarressment. PERIOD. plain and simple. (Snow, I mean beyond the cuddle or the kiss, or even both)

Sometimes people get so full of themselves.

[theblueone]

I honestly believe that it was because the PDA had probably gone too far. I mean that's great that you're in love or whatever but I don't want to see full on groping from anyone in close quarters. Like they said this is a "family company" I don't think they meant any harm towards gays/lesbians I think what they meant was probably you should take it down a notch because there's kids around, which they probably could have said.

I'm all for PDAs, like hand holding a quick kiss.

[Apocalipstic]

Taking the Green Day altercation into account, I wonder of the economy is catching up with Southwest and the flight attendants are over tired? To me that would have to be the most difficult job ever!

That said, I was not there and I have no idea what happened.

I certainly have been around obnoxious people on all sorts of different airlines and try to just focus on my ipod and book and get in my own zone...but it can be difficult for sure. I don't remember ever complaining about another guest though. I just suck it up and deal. People are so whiny.

Do I think I should be able to hold hands, kiss etc? Sure. Completely make out? Not the place for it.

Will I be boycotting SW? No.

[theblueone]

Well if they wanted to be really annoying and make a statement about it all, instead of tweet whining they could have just pissed in the aisle and then exited.

[Cin]

I totally agree that no-one needs to see excessive displays of affection in public places. I just feel the rules need to apply to all. It seems to me heterosexual couples are given a free frolicking pass. I have certainly been unable to find incidents where heterosexual couples were even admonished by airlines let alone thrown off airplanes

This reminds me of something that happened while I was playing a game on BFP the other day. Buzz Words is the game. I am all for not using derogatory terms for ethnic groups. However, the word “kike” is acceptable in this game while a variety of other ethnic slurs are not. One cannot help but feel discriminated against in cases such as this. If no disparaging terminology is acceptable then none should be accepted. If disparaging terminology is accepted then it should be accepted across the board. I felt worse about the fact that some or should I say at least one disparaging term is accepted while others are rejected than I would have been had all derogatory terminology been allowed. At least then it wouldn’t have felt like purposeful, selected, willful prejudice against one group.

I know it is a stretch to connect this to what happens regarding public displays of affection. However, I feel the rules for all paying customers should be the same. It’s that equity thing again. I would be just as happy, perhaps in some cases much happier, if there were no public displays of affection allowed at all. But to me it is grossly unfair to have a certain segment of the population forced to not only refrain from kissing their partner in public but to be forced to witness others exercising their right to do just that.

[Apocalipstic]

Do we know what their policy is on heterosexual people making out on planes? I would be grossed out (or turned on depending lol) either way.

I agree that a racial slur is a racial slur and should not be tolerated.

[theblueone]

Heterosexual couples don't get kicked off the plane for PDAs because they're so miserable with one another they can't even look at each other. LOL

[Cin]

Originally Posted by apocalipstic

Do we know what their policy is on heterosexual people making out on planes? I would be grossed out (or turned on depending lol) either way.

I agree that a racial slur is a racial slur and should not be tolarated.

I don't know their policy but I cannot find any incidents of heterosexuals being thrown off planes for kissing or any sexual misconduct. Not saying it doesn't happen, just saying i googled and googled a variety of ways without luck. No matter how many times I put in heterosexual couple and heterosexual public displays of affection or heterosexual excessive displays of kissing or heterosexual overly sexual behavior I got links to homosexuality. Interesting quirk of google perhaps.

[apretty]

Since they probably weren't fucking it was about "they gay".

[Nadeest]

I don't mind PDA's, in fact, enjoy them, but......... the rules should be the same for everyone, whether straight or gay. It sounds as if things could have been handled better on both sides of the dispute. I do find it interesting, though, that the Southwest attendants claimed that this was a 'family airline' when the airline claims that it is the official airline of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

[Ebon]

I need more info on this. I haven't seen anything saying whether or not they were having a slobber fest or if they were just being cuddly. I know I'm not big on PDA but if a couple is cuddling and being affection I don't see how that would be offensive but if they were trying to swallow each others tongues then that would annoy me as well I don't care who is kissing who. I might ask them to tone it down a notch before kicking them off of the plane though.

[Cin]

Originally Posted by Ebon

I need more info on this. I haven't seen anything saying whether or not they were having a slobber fest or if they were just being cuddly. I know I'm not big on PDA but if a couple is cuddling and being affection I don't see how that would be offensive but if they were trying to swallow each others tongues then that would annoy me as well I don't care who is kissing who. I might ask them to tone it down a notch before kicking them off of the plane though.

All the information seems to be different depending on whether you are leisha hailey or the airline. I haven't read anything from an impartial source. If indeed there is one.

[Apocalipstic]

Mayeb some other passengers will speak out.

[Cin]

Originally Posted by apocalipstic

Mayeb some other passengers will speak out.

Perhaps. But if they are the same passengers who complained it might not be an unbiased account.

Not sure there will be one though. An unbiased account i mean. Maybe there's no such thing anyway. Depends where you stand on PDA, homosexuality and probably a number of other factors i can only imagine. I guess like much of life, it's not going to cooperate and be a black and white thing.

[EnderD_503]

I agree what with some posters have said about the report on this being really fucking vague. It all comes down to what the airline considers "excessive" and what the couple was actually doing. What is "excessive," and, like the OP said, is "excessive" the same for heterosexual and queer couples?

The way I read the article in the OP, it makes me think that both sides were "right" to some extent. I didn't know who Leisha Hailey was until I read the article (I've never watched the L Word, really), but once I saw she was a celebrity of some sort it made me question her testimony more than I would of had they been a non-celebrity couple. Celebrities often seem to be really attention-grabbing, anything for the headlines type of people. It wouldn't be totally surprising, to me anyway, for a celebrity to think the rules didn't apply to them and then scream discrimination when someone subjects them to the same rules as everyone else (Paris Hilton and her drunk driving, celebrities in rehab, celebrities generally behaving horribly in public and expecting that the law exempt them from equal treatment). This "above the law" mentality isn't uncommon.

That being said, I also think there was more than likely a rather big tinge of homophobia going on with passengers reporting these supposedly "excessive" (again, wtf is excessive?) activities. I'm originally from Ontario, but have frequently in another province and even out of Canada for various periods of time. Because of that, I've spent a fair amount of time on planes and during that time I've been annoyed a number of times by heterosexual couples deciding to have a heavily gropey make-out session two centimetres from my face while waiting in line to get off the plane. That seems to be their usual chosen spot for said make-out sessions. Besides people rolling their eyes or looking away, no one has said shit and the flight attendants didn't say shit either...and really there's no reason to. Granted, they were never an American airline (and Europeans tend to view public displays of affection differently), but still, I've never heard of heterosexuals being kicked off planes for public displays of affection (when did we start abbreviating that, btw?).

That said, it seems like the actress made a gigantic scene after the flight attendants approached her, which probably didn't help matters. Imo, there's a difference between silencing yourself/not being heard when you're being discriminated against, and waiting for a time/place where you will actually be properly heard and make a difference (for example, waiting until they were in a position to make a formal complaint or take it to court). I don't think making a scene on a flight waiting to take off was conducive to getting her point across that this was more than likely a case of homophobia.

So yeah, I think it was definitely a homophobic call simply because it seems that heterosexual aren't held up to the same standard of what is "excessive" or not on airlines (and in society, for that matter). Even if this couple was being excessive, why were they called out if heterosexual couples are not? The rules need to apply to everyone if they're going to be there at all. It just shows prevailing public mentality of homosexuality being more "perverse" by its very nature than heterosexuality.

[SoNotHer]

Originally Posted by EnderD_503;426181... but still, I've never heard of heterosexuals being [U

kicked off[/U] planes for public displays of affection (when did we start abbreviating that, btw?).

Agreed, and therein lies the problem, regardless of the bad behavior on either side.

And yes, EnderD, I would have thought a PDA was a variation of a PDF before I read this thread . :-)

[LeftWriteFemme]

Can I say one phrase..........the mile high club. Straight people don't get thrown off planes enough to discourage membership.......my 2 cents

[Apocalipstic]

Originally Posted by LeftWriteFemme

Can I say one phrase..........the mile high club. Straight people don't get thrown off planes enough to discourage membership.......my 2 cents

Though, with speck sized bathrooms on planes these days, I think most mile high stories may be anecdotal.