'The L-Word' Star Kicked Off Southwest Flight for Kissing G

[BrooklynRedLeg]

Associated Press

A lesbian actress who starred in "The L-Word" said she kissed a girl -- and got escorted off of a Southwest Airlines flight on Monday for doing it.

Leisha Hailey took to Twitter to call for a boycott of the carrier after a flight attendant told them other passengers had complained after witnessing the affection.

Her first tweet said: "I have been discriminated against." She later added, "Since when is showing affection to someone you love illegal?"

Southwest Airlines Co. responded on its website that Hailey was approached "based solely on behavior and not gender." The airline's four-sentence response said passengers were characterizing the behavior as excessive.

A discussion followed on the flight, and the airline said it "escalated to a level that was better resolved on the ground."

Hailey was a musician before joining the cast of the Showtime drama featuring the lives of lesbian friends and lovers living in Los Angeles. She played the character Alice Pieszecki.

The actress and her unidentified girlfriend were on a flight from Baltimore to St. Louis. The kissing occurred in the air and a discussion followed when the plane landed.

Hailey said the encounter between the couple and a flight attendant was recorded.

A message seeking comment from Halley's spokeswoman, Libby Coffey, was not immediately returned.

Southwest's website says it is the official airline of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Herndon Graddick, senior director of programs at GLAAD, said in an email that "GLAAD contacted Southwest to call for additional actions beyond tonight's statement that ensure all customers feel comfortable and welcomed while traveling."

Earlier this month, the Dallas-based airline kicked off Green Day's lead man Billie Joe Armstrong for wearing his pants too low. The Grammy winner was escorted off a plane after failing to follow a flight attendant's directive to pull the pants up.

Southwest also removed director Kevin Smith from a flight last year because he didn't fit properly in a single seat. His first tweet read, "Dear (at)SouthwestAir I know I'm fat, but was (the) captain (...) really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?"

Halley is preparing to launch a 21-city tour to promote breast cancer awareness.

Talk about a corporation that loves shooting themselves in the foot. This is why I'm always puzzled when people say its heartless of Free Market Anarchists like me to say that its far better to let the Market take care of these problems. Boycotts hurt the bottom line and it will be evolution in action to see if they adapt or croak.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Talk about a corporation that loves shooting themselves in the foot. This is why I'm always puzzled when people say its heartless of Free Market Anarchists like me to say that its far better to let the Market take care of these problems. Boycotts hurt the bottom line and it will be evolution in action to see if they adapt or croak.

Yeah... about that... This is the natural result of anarchy.










In a system without laws, people will gravitate toward strong men who will protect them and their property, thus wielding vast amounts of power. You see the end result above. The feudal system. Oh, and the assumptions that lead to the idea of a free market being a good idea, such as substitution of goods, rational actor theory, lack of transactional costs etc are all wrong. And let us not forget the fact that corporations are externalizing machines. I for one, like breathing.

[Hawkwings]

As long as Southwest keeps offering dirt-cheap flights on popular routes, guess how many people are actually going to give a damn?

[Kuja]

Associated Press

A lesbian actress who starred in "The L-Word" said she kissed a girl -- and got escorted off of a Southwest Airlines flight on Monday for doing it.

Leisha Hailey took to Twitter to call for a boycott of the carrier after a flight attendant told them other passengers had complained after witnessing the affection.

Her first tweet said: "I have been discriminated against." She later added, "Since when is showing affection to someone you love illegal?"

Southwest Airlines Co. responded on its website that Hailey was approached "based solely on behavior and not gender." The airline's four-sentence response said passengers were characterizing the behavior as excessive.

A discussion followed on the flight, and the airline said it "escalated to a level that was better resolved on the ground."

Hailey was a musician before joining the cast of the Showtime drama featuring the lives of lesbian friends and lovers living in Los Angeles. She played the character Alice Pieszecki.

The actress and her unidentified girlfriend were on a flight from Baltimore to St. Louis. The kissing occurred in the air and a discussion followed when the plane landed.

Hailey said the encounter between the couple and a flight attendant was recorded.

A message seeking comment from Halley's spokeswoman, Libby Coffey, was not immediately returned.

Southwest's website says it is the official airline of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Herndon Graddick, senior director of programs at GLAAD, said in an email that "GLAAD contacted Southwest to call for additional actions beyond tonight's statement that ensure all customers feel comfortable and welcomed while traveling."

Earlier this month, the Dallas-based airline kicked off Green Day's lead man Billie Joe Armstrong for wearing his pants too low. The Grammy winner was escorted off a plane after failing to follow a flight attendant's directive to pull the pants up.

Southwest also removed director Kevin Smith from a flight last year because he didn't fit properly in a single seat. His first tweet read, "Dear (at)SouthwestAir I know I'm fat, but was (the) captain (...) really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?"

Halley is preparing to launch a 21-city tour to promote breast cancer awareness.

Sounds like a non-story to me. The highlighted bits make me wonder just how truthful the actress is being - there's a bit of a difference between a two-second peck and a thirty-minute tonguing liplock. From the sound of things they didn't even interrupt the pair to get them to stop, they dealt with it after the plane landed. The title is misleading as well, the actress wasn't kicked off the flight, she was escorted off the plane after it landed.

Seems to me Southwest did things right and the actress is in a snit because she's just pissed off.

Gotta love the Kevin Smith bit, too. I love the tubby bastard, but goddamn dude, yes they're justified in throwing your fat ass off the plane if you can't fit in your frigging seat.

Also, this:

As long as Southwest keeps offering dirt-cheap flights on popular routes, guess how many people are actually going to give a damn?

[Napoleon the Clown]

Define "kissing," Miss Hailey. Just a kiss or full-tongue "horny teens finding out what the other person at for lunch" kissing? I'm betting on the latter. For people to complain you're generally to the point where people can hear you going at it and will look to see what that noise is. And oddly enough, most people don't like to watch much of anyone sit and noisily make out with each other.

Call me suspicious, but I think she's misrepresenting the incident.

[Irbis]

What I don't get is what's the point of escorting someone who intended to disembark anyway off the plane. Frankly, it seems to me they shouldn't bother, and if they really reached level that annoyed other people the attendant should just politely told them to stop, IMHO, not do something pointless and producing bad PR.

[madd0ct0r]

escorted could just mean she was met by a security guard and an airline manager to ensure the discussion was had. heck, she might even have demanded to see the the manager. no info either way.

[Hillary]

Sounds like a non-story to me. The highlighted bits make me wonder just how truthful the actress is being - there's a bit of a difference between a two-second peck and a thirty-minute tonguing liplock. From the sound of things they didn't even interrupt the pair to get them to stop, they dealt with it after the plane landed. The title is misleading as well, the actress wasn't kicked off the flight, she was escorted off the plane after it landed.

If you can find me any instances where a heterosexual couple have been similarly taken to task for overactive snogging on a plane, then I might believe it was a non-story. She clearly feels that had she been kissing a boy in this way, then nothing would have been said - I don't find this difficult to believe; I have had discussions with people who think that gay couples holding hands is taking things too far.

[CaptainChewbacca]

In recent months, I've seen people in 'provocative' clothes getting kicked off planes on the news. Here's the thing; The airline doesn't have to take you anywhere, so if they ask you to do something (like stop sucking on your SO's tongue) you should probably do that and just hold hands. The inside of her mouth will be there when you land.

If you're causing ANY kind of stress or disturbance to the passengers on the plane, they'll throw you off. From my memory, celebrities I can think of kicked off airplanes in the last 5 years:

Kevin Smith
Ivana Trump
Dave Chapelle
Josh Dushamel

In all but one case (Smith) they were thrown off because they were asked to stop doing something and didn't do it. Job One for flight attendants is to keep the plane calm, because angry crowds at 30,000 feet is bad news. Don't make their job harder.

[salm]

In recent months, I've seen people in 'provocative' clothes getting kicked off planes on the news. Here's the thing; The airline doesn't have to take you anywhere, so if they ask you to do something (like stop sucking on your SO's tongue) you should probably do that and just hold hands. The inside of her mouth will be there when you land.

If you're causing ANY kind of stress or disturbance to the passengers on the plane, they'll throw you off. From my memory, celebrities I can think of kicked off airplanes in the last 5 years:

Kevin Smith
Ivana Trump
Dave Chapelle
Josh Dushamel

In all but one case (Smith) they were thrown off because they were asked to stop doing something and didn't do it. Job One for flight attendants is to keep the plane calm, because angry crowds at 30,000 feet is bad news. Don't make their job harder.

The question is if the airline should have the right to tell you how to act regarding such trivial nonsense. After all you´ve payed them a whole bunch of money so the airline actually does have to take you somewhere. They shouldn´t be able to kick you out for stupid shit imo.

[Kuja]

If you can find me any instances where a heterosexual couple have been similarly taken to task for overactive snogging on a plane, then I might believe it was a non-story.

This post piqued my curiosity, and I decided to go see if I could find anything. Unfortunately, various google permutations of "kicked / removed / flight / plane / sexual / kissing" kept linking pages and pages of this exact story.

I decided to go to Southwest's site to see if I could find a list of passenger rules and/or what might theoretically get you kicked off a plane. I found the following pdf:

http://www.southwest.com/assets/pdfs/co ... rriage.pdf

6. Acceptance of Passengers

a. Refusal to Transport

General. Carrier may, in its sole discretion, refuse to transport, or may remove from an aircraft at any point, any Passenger in any of the circumstances listed below. The fare of any Passenger denied transportation or removed from Carrier.s aircraft en route under the provisions of this Article will be refunded in accordance with Article 9 of this Contract of Carriage. The sole recourse of any Passenger refused transportation or removed en route will be the recovery of the refund value of the unused portion of his Ticket. Under no circumstances shall Carrier be liable to any Passenger for any type of special, incidental, or consequential damages.

(1) Safety. Whenever such action is necessary, with or without notice, for reasons of aviation safety.

(2) Force Majeure Event: Whenever advisable due to Force Majeure Events outside of Carrier.s control, including, without limitation acts of God, meteorological events, such as storms, rain, wind, fire, fog, flooding, earthquakes, haze, or volcanic eruption. It also includes, without limitation, government action, disturbances or potentially volatile international conditions, civil commotions, riots, embargoes, wars, or hostilities, whether actual, threatened, or reported, strikes, work stoppage, slowdown, lockout or any other labor related dispute involving or affecting Carrier.s service, mechanical difficulties by entities other than Carrier, Air Traffic Control, the inability to obtain fuel, airport gates, labor, or landing facilities for the flight in question or any fact not reasonably foreseen, anticipated or predicted by Carrier.

(3) Government Request or Regulation. Whenever such action is necessary to comply with any Federal Aviation Regulation or other applicable government regulation, or to comply with any governmental request for emergency transportation in connection with the national defense.

(4) Interference with Flight Crew. Passengers who interfere or attempt to interfere with any member of the flight crew in carrying out its duties.

(5) Search of Passenger or Property. Any Passenger who refuses to permit the search of his person or property by Carrier or an authorized government agency for explosives, hazardous materials, contraband, or concealed, deadly, or dangerous weapons or articles.

(6) Proof of Identity. Any Passenger who refuses upon request to produce positive identification acceptable to the Carrier.

(7) Incompatible Medical Requirements. Carrier will refuse to transport persons requiring the following medical equipment or services, which either are not authorized or cannot be accommodated on Carrier.s aircraft: medical oxygen for use onboard the aircraft except FAA-approved and Carrier accepted Portable Oxygen Concentrators (POCs), incubators, medical devices requiring electrical power from the aircraft, or travel on a stretcher.

(8) Comfort and Safety. Carrier may refuse to transport, or remove from the aircraft at any point, any Passenger in any of the circumstances listed below as may be necessary for the comfort or safety of such Passenger or other Passengers and crew members:

(i) Persons whose conduct is or has been known to be disorderly, abusive, offensive, threatening, intimidating, violent, or whose clothing is lewd, obscene, or patently offensive.

(ii) Persons who are barefoot and older than five years of age, unless required due to a disability.

(iii) Persons who are unable to occupy a seat with the seatbelt fastened.

(iv) Persons who are unwilling to comply with seating requirements under Carrier.s customer of size policy as specified in Article 4a(3)(i). Carrier.s failure to enforce or decision not to enforce its customer of size policy for a Passenger traveling on a given flight does not preclude Carrier from enforcing the policy with respect to that Passenger on a subsequent flight.

(v) Persons who appear to the Carrier to be intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

(vi) Persons who are known by the Carrier to have a communicable disease or infection and whose condition poses a direct threat as defined in 14 CFR ¡× 382.3 to the health or safety of others.

(vii) Persons who have an offensive odor, unless caused by a disability.

(viii) Any person who cannot be transported safely for any reason.

(9) Weapons. Persons who wear or have on or about their person concealed or unconcealed deadly or dangerous weapons; provided, however, that Carrier will carry Passengers who meet the qualifications and conditions established in 49 CFR ¡× 1544.219.

(10) Prisoners. Prisoners (persons charged with or convicted of a crime) under escort of law enforcement personnel; other persons in the custody of law enforcement personnel who are being transported while wearing manacles or other forms of restraint; persons brought into the airport in manacles or other forms of restraint; persons who have resisted escorts; or escorted persons who express to Carrier an objection to being transported on the flight.

(11) Non-Smoking Policy. Persons who are unwilling or unable to abide by Carrier's non-smoking rules, and federal laws prohibiting smoking onboard the aircraft as established in 49 USC ¡× 41706.

(12) Misrepresentation. Persons who have made a misrepresentation which becomes evident upon arrival at the airport, and the misrepresentation renders the Person unacceptable for Carriage.

(13) Prohibition on Solicitation. Persons who refuse to comply with instructions given by Carrier prohibiting the solicitation of items for sale or purchase, including airline Tickets, reduced-rate travel passes, or travel award certificates.

Note the bolded section: yes, you can be thrown off a plane if your behavior makes other passengers uncomfortable.

She clearly feels that had she been kissing a boy in this way, then nothing would have been said - I don't find this difficult to believe; I have had discussions with people who think that gay couples holding hands is taking things too far.

She may feel that, but that's neither here nor there - as I said above, there's a difference between a two-second peck and a thirty minute slurp. What we know is that someone - multiple people, according to the article - complained to the flight attendants and the woman was escorted off the plane after landing.

Yes, it's possible that one or more of those complaints may have been motivated by homophobia...but it's equally possible that this woman's making a public spectacle as an attempt to save face after the humiliation of being walked off the plane because she and her GF were making out for the duration of the flight just for the thrill of it.

Either way, it appears Southwest handled things fairly - they took complaints from multiple passengers about the actress' behavior, discussed the situation, and decided to take no action until landing, whereupon they informed the actress of the complaints and escorted her off the plane. Let's reiterate here - the woman was not kicked off the flight. The plane didn't take off and leave her at the gate, nor did it make some emergency landing to dump her off halfway to St. Louis.

Complaining about the situation is probably understandable. Calling for a boycott of the airline is excessive.

[banquetbear]

She may feel that, but that's neither here nor there - as I said above, there's a difference between a two-second peck and a thirty minute slurp. What we know is that someone - multiple people, according to the article - complained to the flight attendants and the woman was escorted off the plane after landing.

Yes, it's possible that one or more of those complaints may have been motivated by homophobia...but it's equally possible that this woman's making a public spectacle as an attempt to save face after the humiliation of being walked off the plane because she and her GF were making out for the duration of the flight just for the thrill of it.

Either way, it appears Southwest handled things fairly - they took complaints from multiple passengers about the actress' behavior, discussed the situation, and decided to take no action until landing, whereupon they informed the actress of the complaints and escorted her off the plane. Let's reiterate here - the woman was not kicked off the flight. The plane didn't take off and leave her at the gate, nor did it make some emergency landing to dump her off halfway to St. Louis.

Complaining about the situation is probably understandable. Calling for a boycott of the airline is excessive.

...there is no evidence that the couple were making out for the entire flight for the thrill of it: this is entirely your invention. Southwest Airlines don't allege it: Leisha Hailey doesn't claim it, none of the other passengers have come forward to say they witnessed it. Leisha claims it was one modest kiss: "a peck on the cheek." Southwest Airlines claims "it was excessive." In the absence of any other positive claims from Southwest it is unreasonable to extrapolate "excessive" to "the couple were making out for the entire flight for the thrill of it" without any evidence to back that up. Calling for a boycott is entirely within their rights and IMHO not excessive, and I am curious as to why you think that it is, considering that they proudly consider themselves to be a gay friendly airline, yet they think that a peck on the cheek (no evidence has been provided by Southwest Airlines to say otherwise) to be excessive.
http://www.southwest.com/html/southwest ... tners.html


Statement from Hailey and Grey:

"We have always promoted tolerance, openness and equality both as a band and as individuals. We both come from loving homes where our parents not only love and accept us, but are also proud of who we are. We believe everyone has the right to live openly in this society as equals. In no way were our actions on Southwest Airlines excessive, inappropriate or vulgar. We want to make it clear we were not making out or creating any kind of spectacle of ourselves, it was one, modest kiss. We are responsible adult women who walk through the world with dignity. We were simply being affectionate like any normal couple. We were on the airplane less than 5 minutes when all was said and done. We take full responsibility for getting verbally upset with the flight attendant after being told it was a 'family airline.' We were never told the reason the flight attendant approached us, we were only scolded that we 'needed to be aware that Southwest Airlines was a family oriented airline.' No matter how quietly homophobia is whispered, it doesn’t make it any less loud. You can’t whisper hate. We ask this airline to teach their employees to not discriminate against any couple, ever, regardless of their own beliefs. We want to live in a society where if your loved one leans over to give you an innocent kiss on an airplane it's not labeled as 'excessive or not family oriented' by a corporation and its employees. We find it very disturbing that the same airline who lauds itself as being LGBT friendly has twisted an upsetting incident that happened into our behavior being 'too excessive.' The above is not an apology and we are in the process of filing a formal complaint with the airline. We hope that when all is said and done a greater tolerance without prejudice will evolve."

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News ... dest_Kiss/

[Napoleon the Clown]

Other passengers aren't gonna notice if it's just a "quick peck" on the cheek. I'd love to see some sort of evidence for people on a plane actually even noticing very quick, very brief action like a very quick kiss on the cheek.

And as far as an opposite sex couple getting escorted off the plane for displays of affection... Celebrity means the media is gonna notice. Two average people, on the other hand, aren't going to really register on the media's give-a-damn meter. I somehow doubt Southwest would go on record saying the celebrity they removed from the place was playing tonsil hockey with her girlfriend.

As to none of the passengers involved coming forward to say anything... Well, maybe they don't want to get in the spotlight? Or they don't want random asshole fans of The L Word (this isn't to say all its fans are assholes) giving them shit on the street, should recognition occur.

Never forget to take into account that there are lots of people out there that are utter attention whores with a massively overgrown sense of entitlement. Being on a popular Showtime series makes it a hell of a lot easier to get a ton of attention. Personally, I take the complaints of celebrities with a grain of salt.

[banquetbear]

Other passengers aren't gonna notice if it's just a "quick peck" on the cheek. I'd love to see some sort of evidence for people on a plane actually even noticing very quick, very brief action like a very quick kiss on the cheek.

And as far as an opposite sex couple getting escorted off the plane for displays of affection... Celebrity means the media is gonna notice. Two average people, on the other hand, aren't going to really register on the media's give-a-damn meter. I somehow doubt Southwest would go on record saying the celebrity they removed from the place was playing tonsil hockey with her girlfriend.

As to none of the passengers involved coming forward to say anything... Well, maybe they don't want to get in the spotlight? Or they don't want random asshole fans of The L Word (this isn't to say all its fans are assholes) giving them shit on the street, should recognition occur.

Never forget to take into account that there are lots of people out there that are utter attention whores with a massively overgrown sense of entitlement. Being on a popular Showtime series makes it a hell of a lot easier to get a ton of attention. Personally, I take the complaints of celebrities with a grain of salt.

...so on one hand we have a positive, specific claim ("it was a peck on the cheek") and on the other hand we have claim that would be fair to describe as... vague? ("characterizing the behavior as excessive.") And you choose to believe the vague claim because you think that Southwest doesn't want to go on record to defend themselves? (NB: I note another story currently says that she gave her partner a peck on the lips)

I don't think it matters whether or not Leisha Hailey is a celebrity or not. A quick google for "Leisha Hailey -southwest" reveals no history of "entitlement", and nothing else really interesting apart from a whole lot of videos that are obviously NSFW.

So we have speculation ("she's doing this for publicity", "she's an attention whore", "a thirty minute slurp", "she and her GF were making out for the duration of the flight just for the thrill of it.") based entirely off the statement from Southwest airlines that the behavior as excessive. And we have the words of one of the accused who claims it was nothing like that at all.

If the behavior of Southwest Airlines was so defensible they would defend it: instead they choose to use weasel words like "excessive". If the two were sucking face for thirty minutes Southwest would let us know: instead they chose to be vague. Southwest do not contradict Leisha's story. Nothing has been presented to show otherwise: but by being deliberately vague Southwest has almost given licence for people to invent scenarios and defend them by proxy.

[Hillary]

I decided to go to Southwest's site to see if I could find a list of passenger rules and/or what might theoretically get you kicked off a plane. I found the following pdf:

http://www.southwest.com/assets/pdfs/co ... rriage.pdf

snip rules.

Note the bolded section: yes, you can be thrown off a plane if your behavior makes other passengers uncomfortable.

Fantastic - now you can show where I, in any way, suggested the airline were not acting legally.

She clearly feels that had she been kissing a boy in this way, then nothing would have been said - I don't find this difficult to believe; I have had discussions with people who think that gay couples holding hands is taking things too far.

She may feel that, but that's neither here nor there - as I said above, there's a difference between a two-second peck and a thirty minute slurp. What we know is that someone - multiple people, according to the article - complained to the flight attendants and the woman was escorted off the plane after landing.

Where does this 30 minutes tonsel-hockey claim come from. Oh, that's right, you pulled it out of your arse.

Yes, it's possible that one or more of those complaints may have been motivated by homophobia...but it's equally possible that this woman's making a public spectacle as an attempt to save face after the humiliation of being walked off the plane because she and her GF were making out for the duration of the flight just for the thrill of it..

Where does this "making out for the duration of the flight" claim come from. Oh, that's right, you pulled it out of your arse. She has claimed it was a mere show of affection, the airline has claimed it was excessive. Probably somewhere in the middle then. As I said, there are people who think any show of affection by gay couples for each other is too far.

Either way, it appears Southwest handled things fairly - they took complaints from multiple passengers about the actress' behavior, discussed the situation, and decided to take no action until landing, whereupon they informed the actress of the complaints and escorted her off the plane. Let's reiterate here - the woman was not kicked off the flight. The plane didn't take off and leave her at the gate, nor did it make some emergency landing to dump her off halfway to St. Louis. .

I have to ask how this is being reasonable. The plane has landed, the passengers about to disembark - why the fuck was it necessary to make any sort of comment to her at all? The cabin crew must have known that it could only cause a scene to do so. Would they have done the same to a heterosexual couple? I have my doubts.

Complaining about the situation is probably understandable. Calling for a boycott of the airline is excessive.

Perhaps she was angry and just venting. We've all done that.

Other passengers aren't gonna notice if it's just a "quick peck" on the cheek. I'd love to see some sort of evidence for people on a plane actually even noticing very quick, very brief action like a very quick kiss on the cheek.

And as far as an opposite sex couple getting escorted off the plane for displays of affection... Celebrity means the media is gonna notice. Two average people, on the other hand, aren't going to really register on the media's give-a-damn meter. I somehow doubt Southwest would go on record saying the celebrity they removed from the place was playing tonsil hockey with her girlfriend.

Yet I fail to recall a single incident of a celebrity heterosexual couple being escorted from a plane for the same reason - even though they would presumably register just as highly on the media's radar if that were the case (a lot of them far more highly)

In recent months, I've seen people in 'provocative' clothes getting kicked off planes on the news. Here's the thing; The airline doesn't have to take you anywhere, so if they ask you to do something (like stop sucking on your SO's tongue) you should probably do that and just hold hands. The inside of her mouth will be there when you land.

If you're causing ANY kind of stress or disturbance to the passengers on the plane, they'll throw you off. From my memory, celebrities I can think of kicked off airplanes in the last 5 years:

Kevin Smith
Ivana Trump
Dave Chapelle
Josh Dushamel

In all but one case (Smith) they were thrown off because they were asked to stop doing something and didn't do it. Job One for flight attendants is to keep the plane calm, because angry crowds at 30,000 feet is bad news. Don't make their job harder.

No one is saying that they didn't act legally. No one is saying that you shouldn't do exactly what you are told by the crew on a plane. But that isn't what happened in this case. What the couple were doing was not serious enough to warrant the crew intervening whilst in flight. They waiting until the plane had touched down and the passengers about to disembark before they stepped in.

[Darth Lucifer]

According to LA Times blogs, Hailey's own words on the matter, posted on her Twitter feed state "We were escorted off the plane for getting upset about the issue." From what I understand, if you raise a big enough stink over ANY issue, that's grounds for being removed from an airplane.

Source

[Napoleon the Clown]

I'd like to know the last time any of you noticed a couple on a plane give a quick peck on the cheek. Hell, I'd love to know the last time you even payed any mind to the other passengers. Most people just want to get on the plane and not really interact with any of the other passengers except maybe the person next to them. A peck on the cheek does not draw attention and most people aren't familiar enough with her one claim to fame to even recognize her.

[Serafina]

I'd like to know the last time any of you noticed a couple on a plane give a quick peck on the cheek. Hell, I'd love to know the last time you even payed any mind to the other passengers. Most people just want to get on the plane and not really interact with any of the other passengers except maybe the person next to them. A peck on the cheek does not draw attention and most people aren't familiar enough with her one claim to fame to even recognize her.

The same could be said of a peck on a cheek in any public place.
A heterosexual peck on the cheek, that is. People wont pay you any attention if you are a man giving a woman a small kiss, but if you are a woman doing that (or a man doing that with another man) people WILL notice. There are numerous stories of homosexual couples being thrown out of places (restaurants, bars, cinemas etc.) just because they were kissing normally (or sometimes even for holding hands or looking at each other with affection).
Her being somewhat famous has nothing to do with people noticing that, it could have just as easily have happened with any other lesbian couple.

The most likely scenario is that Hailey gave her girlfriend a small kiss, some homophobic passengers got upset about it and the flight attendants were unwilling to listen to her side of the story.
Yes, it could also have been "making out on the toilet" or a "30 minute tonguing liplock". However, that is rather unlikely and there is plenty of precedent for people considering homosexual behavior of any sort as inappropriate.

[DudeGuyMan]

I bet she briefly kissed her girfriend on the cheek once and savage passengers leapt up and beat her into a coma with bibles. She belongs to a minority group so I'm required by board culture to take her side.

[whackadoodle]

The incident cast a national media spotlight on the actress, who is now a part of the electgro-pop duo Uh Huh Her.
Helley's publicist Libby Coffey said the encounter was real and was "absolutely not" done as a publicity stunt for her band's upcoming breast cancer awareness tour.

Transcribed from my crackberry, so no link yet.

[Anguirus]

A peck on the cheek does not draw attention

I'd like to be that blissfully ignorant of homophobia.

She belongs to a minority group so I'm required by board culture to take her side.

Oh boo fuckity hoo. More like, information is so lacking that both sides frantically exaggerate in the hopes of influencing the board's overall perception of the narrative. The "peck on the cheek" line comes from a source with legal and rhetorical motivations to minimize the incident, and the "tonsil hockey" scenario comes from thin fucking air.

Do people sometimes get carried away when they are kissing? Yes. Is Southwest sometimes dickish to its customers? Yes. Is homophobia pervasive in American culture? Yes. What does it add up to? Who knows, there's not enough info.

Of course, at some point admitting that you aren't certain about an incident about which you have no information became tantamount to chopping your balls/ovaries off. So by all means, take a side because you're sick of minorities, or because you want to see more lesbians kissing in public. Whatthefuckever.

(For more of this, dive into the archives here relating to the DSK incident.)

[whackadoodle]

Forbes.com, AP stringer
Not the exact same text, but obviously cut-paste-edited from the same AP source.

[whackadoodle]

Is Southwest sometimes dickish to its customers? Yes.

What you call dickish, others would call backing up their employees. SouthWest airlines, from the founder on down, has an unofficial rule that "The Customer is Not always right". If customer curses publicly at an employee, the corporation tends to side with the employee. Rare today, but it seems to do wonders for talent retention and employee happiness.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

A peck on the cheek does not draw attention

I'd like to be that blissfully ignorant of homophobia.

Maybe it's my proximity to Hollywood, but I can't see how a peck on the cheek is even identified as romantic contact. I (and countless other bystanders) see plenty of heterosexual women (and men sometimes) kiss each other on the cheek all the time. Maybe it's a custom only local to Hollywood, but tons of snooty neuveau riche poseurs seem to think the cheek-peck is the European handshake-equivalent. I grant you that homophobia probably played a big part in the complaints, but I doubt anyone but the most stringent homophobe would freak out over such a common sign of affection.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Plane seats tend to strongly limit how much you can see of people in front of you. Unless you've turned around and either stood up or leaned over you aren't going to see the people behind you. And during my experiences flying passengers tend to look mostly forward rather than staring at people. The vast majority of passengers wouldn't even have the women's heads in view unless both of them are considerably taller than the average woman. The people to the side would be unlikely to be paying enough attention to even notice a person give a quick peck on the cheek.

Unless someone can give me an example of a time on an airline flight they've noticed other passengers looking at other people closely enough to even register a "quick peck on the cheek".


If actual evidence comes forward that it was just a quick peck on the cheek I'll own up to being wrong and call foul on the matter. Otherwise I don't find it terribly likely people are going to notice an action that is circumspect in the first place and is in a situation where you don't clearly notice what people's heads are doing. Maybe she didn't go into the full make-out session you can hear from five seats back.

And given the antics of other celebrities that have been removed from a plane (See: Kevin Smith and his bitching about not being allowed to occupy a seat he did not pay for [or was it that he spilled over into the isle, creating a safety hazard and making it impossible for flight attendants to get past him with carts filled with drinks and snacks provided for the benefit of customers? Can't say I remember for sure], Billie Joe Armstrong throwing a bitchfit upon being asked to pull up his damn pants, Ivana Trump throwing a fit and swearing and screaming at flight attendants over some kids being little shits, Josh Duhamel for not complying with Federal law stating that cell phones must be turned off during the flight...) I'm not exactly optimistic about this situation.