i don’t care if they were kissing in-flight…big deal honeymooners do it all the time on flights between the US and the caribbean. BIG DEAL…

For all of you posting cliche anti-American rants about American uptightness, I have to ask you: If America is such an uptight nation, then why does it produce more porn (including gay porn) than the rest of the world combined? Why are there more gay bars, more gay pride parades, more gay establishments in general? More sex shops? Yes, America has more churches than any other nation, but it also has more theaters, more museums, more universities, more gay bars… Get the picture? It’s called liberty. Sometimes these liberties come into conflict with each other. Freedom isn’t always pretty. You want order, move to North Korea or Canada. You want freedom of expression, stay in the US. Liberty is a two-way street. BTW, a similar incident just occured on a domestic flight in South Africa, which has become a new gay mecca. In this case, the flight attendant covered the gay couple with a blanket so no one would see them snuggle! I guess South Africa is uptight? Oh, and France just banned gay adoptins nationwide. Another uptight nation?

Gay people should not be shut out in public just for showing affection.  This just one more example of discrimination against the gay community.

If you want more discrimination go to this website
mitch stillman or washingtonblade and go to news and more national news.

I was finally evicted from my apartment as a result of discrimination against gay people.

I don’t quite understand the Texas or Dallas bashing anymore than the gay bashing. So I have no sympathies for people who make excuses for one form of prejudice while condemning another. Having said that, I wansn’t on the plane, so I have no idea what really happened. The only story that is constantly being repeated is the one that came out of the New Yorker. Airlines as a whole, like any business, cannot control the behavior of all their individual behavior. Some are going to react differently to different situations. By the way, one is more likely to be gay bashed in New York City than Dallas, Texas. Also, Dell is headquartered in Texas, and they have domestic partnership benfits. Pfizer, which is headquartered in suburban New York City, does not.

American Airlines is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.  Although Dallas has anti-discrimination laws that protect gays, the rest of the state isn’t quite so willing to protect them.  Exxon-Mobil, headquartered in Houston, also isn’t willing to protect gays explicitly.  Texas as a state is pretty homophobic.  Austin, located in Travis County, is one of the few “blue” counties in the state.

While it’s true that in a confined space traveling 500 miles an hour, that everyone needs to make behavioral accomodations, there absolutely shouldn’t be a double-standard. 

A pilot threatening to divert a flight - presumably to treat the matter as he would an air rage incident or worse - is an overreaction.  I’d like to know what kind of training prompted such a reaction - or if it was simply a matter of the pilot “taking matters into his own hands”.

As for the gay couple, I’d suggest they look at other airlines headquartered in other cities.  United is headquartered in Chicago, a far more liberal city than Dallas will ever be.  Since they were flying from Paris, Air France would also be a suitable choice.  One bad experience would be enough for me to ban AA from my list of flight choices.

And, by all means, the couple should speak out about this - make noise.  These weren’t any two average gay people; these were two obviously educated individuals.

I’ve found that on AA flights the passengers
don’t traditionally kiss each other. The norm
is to contort one’s self and kiss your own ass
goodbye. I would typically do this after finding
that the in flight movie was “Snakes On A Plane”!

As Bill Murray’s character said in Stripes:
“Lighten up Francis!”

Clearly American Airline has double standards on this. As any flight attendant knows, two persons of the opposite sex would have been totally fine.
Threatening to divert a plane for a half-a-second kiss (we’re not even talking of PDA here)! It’s interesting and really worrying to see that AA is so active in fighting gay people. I would have thought terrorists were their priority…

“And America is at war with the gay community”

I thought America was at war with terror.. er.. make that mexican imigrants… oooh no, it was Sadam and his friends… is the war against drugs over?  So many wars, so little time.  And we still haven’t gotten to N. Korea and Iran!

BTW, it said “air kissing”, which although flaming behavior (for men), is not the same as making out.
Why won’t you people get over your insecurities and let others just be?  Sheesh!

I can only imagine the furor had this been a case of a mother breast feeding her baby.

Hey Manny… in case it has escaped your attention, “...America is at war with” NOT ONLY “the gay community.”

America is at war with just about everybody and everything that doesn’t fit inside it’s nice, tight little box of “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts.”

One day, if we’re lucky, America and Americans will GROW UP and realize they don’t own this world and no one has elected them judge and jury about what anyone else is doing in it!

Gay people, male and female, are reported to exist in substantial numbers… upwards of 10% of the population. From what I read, while “most” Americans are NOT thrilled about homosexuality in society, “most” thinking Americans accept gays and lesbians as FACTS OF LIFE and realize the vast majority of them are valuable, contributing members to society.

Yup, I agree, some immature gay people seem to go out of their way to irritate “straights” (apparently not very difficult thing to do in a culture that’s as immature and uptight about ANY visible demonstration of human sexuality as America is). It seems to me to be prudent for gays and lesbians to use a little common sense and sensitivity when in public and realize a great many Americans are not as enlightened or sophisticated or tolerant or mature as they like to think they are. Many of them are “still down on the farm” when it comes to dealing with anything outside their own narrow corner of the world.

Just for the record, I’d rather be seated on an airliner next to two gays holding hands and snuggling, than ANYWHERE NEAR A HETERO FAMILY WITH SCREAMING KIDS. You want “offensive” stick that in your pipe!

How long do the rest of us have to wait for Americans to GROW UP?

American Airlines should take all the seats out and put in SANDBOXES!

I agree that in that environment people should conduct themselves civilly and with respect for those around them. I for one am not an enormous fan of “Public Displays of Affection”.  But let us also be serious in realizing that had this been a straight couple, the reaction would not have been nearly as venomous and would certainly not have led to a threat of diverting the plane.

We can have a president that lied to get us into a war and wants to torture people but 2 people of the opposite sex kissing warrants a reaction such as this. America is in serious trouble…

Ok, most Americans don’t agree with homosexual
life style. But both of these men are just asking for it when they are kissing in public.
Do they have a right to kiss ? Certainly, but culture norms are a reality. This in your face and I don’t give damn by both men was inappropriate. To ask what they did wrong, was inmature. They failed to understand that their behavior reflects on all gays. And America is at war with the gay community.