|
|
|
|
United Airlines needs to get their shit together and get it together quickly!
Last Saturday, Henry Amador-Batten, who's a gay male, was flying back home to North Caroline with his son when a flight attendant accused him of touching his own son while on the flight! Flight attendants on the flight from Newark to Raleigh contacted police to make them aware that a man on the flight was resting his hands "near the genitals" of a boy. Amador-Batten was questioned by police once the flight landed and he made them aware that his son was simply afraid of flying and had his hand on the boy's lap to soothe his anxiety. Authorities also questioned his son who confirmed his father's story, they were both released, and the investigation was closed. Posting on their gay parenting blog DADsquared, his husband Joel had this to say, "This is not how anyone deserves to be treated. This is not something that should have happened in front of my son. This is not something that anyone should have to worry about happening to them on a flight just because someone might not like the looks of them." United has come forth with an apology saying, "In this instance, the crew believe it was appropriate to ask authorities to meet the plane and interview the customer. After speaking with the customer, authorities determined that no further action was necessary. Our customers should always be treated with the utmost respect and we have followed up with our customer to apologize for the misunderstanding." The Amador-Batten family have since hired an attorney and are looking @ their options to sue. Brief thoughts: I fully support them suing because that's absolutely crazy! You embarrassed this man in front of everybody, probably had people thinking that this man was/is a pedophile, and probably traumatized the child. Also, did these flight attendants know that he was gay and if so was that a contributing factor into why they thought he was doing something to the child? Devil's advocate: kudos to being vigilant as to what's happening on the plane, but I'm pretty sure somebody checked their tickets when they boarded the plane, and according to their tickets it would be clear that they're father and son. Heaven forbid if a parent tries to be a good parent and tries to comfort their child. We oversexualize everything in this country, so I do find it disturbing that instead of asking is everything alright, these flight attendants just automatically assumed that this man was trying to sexually assault this child. I'm more than positive that if 1 of them had just asked if everything was ok, this man would've been more than willing to explain that his son was scared of flying, and a conversation could have been started with the child, who would've then confirmed that he was scared! I suppose I'm torn on this 1, on 1 hand I support flight attendants being aware of their surroundings especially with the world that we live in today, but on the other hand, the situation could've been handled so much differently.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
|