Alaska Airlines Downgrades Gay Couple So Straight Couple Can Sit Together

David Cooley

ALASKA Airlines is under fire after a gay couple were downgraded from its “premium class” to make way for a straight couple.

Passenger David Cooley said he and his partner were moved to economy from their pre-booked premium seats. David, the owner of a bar called The Abbey in West Hollywood, was flying from New York to Los Angeles last Sunday with his partner when they were asked to move so a heterosexual couple could sit together.

He said that he when they explained that they too were a couple, the flight attendant insisted that they moved to economy seats or leave the plane.

David wrote on Facebook: “I have never been so discriminated against while travelling before. “I was removed from an Alaska Airlines flight 1407 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to LAX to give preferential treatment to a straight couple.

By Rosie Gizauskas – Full Story at The Sun

Traveling While Queer

Traveling While Queer

Do you get excited at the thought of packing up the car and heading home for the holidays or setting off on a cross-country road trip? I don’t.

When my girlfriend, Lara, and I travel on the road, we have to take precautions. We’re constantly on guard against strangers. Lara is a transgender woman of color, and at rest stops I’m never far from her side, guarding her like a Secret Service agent. Lara doesn’t want to stop at gas stations, and she’ll have me pump gas so that no one can see her and try to size her up.

Late one evening this year, Lara and I were driving home to Charlotte, N.C., from Wilmington, N.C., a three-hour trip. We stopped at a service station in a small town called Whiteville. As I filled the tank and Lara sat in the car, I saw a group of people who could have been extras on “Duck Dynasty” gathered by two pickup trucks. I could feel them glaring at us.

One truck screeched out of the gas station, while the other remained. I got into the passenger seat without telling Lara what I saw and fell asleep. About an hour later, she woke me up with words you never want to hear: “We’re being followed.”

By Joanne Spataro – Full Story at the New York Times

Before Purple Roofs, There Was The Green Book

Editor’s note: I find this story fascinating. Just as LGBT travelers needed a guide to places to stay that were friendly to them, African Americans had their own guide before Civil Rights legislation forced all public accommodations to serve their community without bias. The Green Book For African American travelers, much of the U.S. could be a hateful and dangerous place, even into the 1960’s. Jim Crow laws across the South mandated that restaurants, hotels, pool halls and parks strictly separate whites and blacks. Lynchings kept blacks in fear of mob violence. And there were thousands of so-called “sundown towns,” including in northern states like Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan, which barred blacks after dark, an unofficial rule reinforced by the threat of violence. So in 1936, a postal worker named Victor Green began publishing a guide to help African American travelers find friendly restaurants, auto shops and accommodations in far-off places. Green dubbed the guide after himself – the “Green Book” – and published it for decades. Green says he was inspired by the Jewish press, which had long published information on restricted places.

By Ana Swanson – Full Story at The Washington Post

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