Australian Airline Kicks Gay Passenger Off The Flight

I'm wondering if anyone can confirm if this actually happened or not, the newspaper referenced doesn't keep old archives, but it's apparently a real airline and had an employee by this name at one time, according to another forum:

Stand up for your rights

It has been reported that an employee for Ansett Australia (Airlines), who happened to have the last name of Gay, got on a plane recently using the company’s ‘Free Flight’ offer for staff. However, when Mr Gay tried to take his seat, he found it being occupied by a fare paying passenger. So, not to make a fuss, he simply chose another seat.

Unknown to Mr Gay, another Ansett flight at the airport experienced mechanical problems. The passengers of this flight were being re-routed to various other airplanies. A few were put on Mr Gay’s flight and anyone who was holding a ‘free’ ticket was being ‘bumped’. Ansett officials, armed with a list of these ‘freebee’ ticket holders boarded the plane, as is the practise, to remove them in favour of fare paying passengers.

Of course, our Mr Gay was not sitting in his assigned seat as you may remember, so when the Ticket Agent approached the seat where Mr Gay was supposed to be sitting, she asked a startled customer “Are you Gay?”. The man shyly nodded that he was, at which point she demanded “Then you have to get off the plane.” Mr Gay, overhearing what the agent has said, tried to clear up the situation: “You’ve got the wrong man, I’m Gay!”.

This caused an angry third passenger to yell “Hell, I’m gay too! They can’t kick us all off!”. Confusion reined as more and more passengers began yelling that Ansett had no right to remove gays from their flights.

It is reported that Ansett have refused to comment on the incident.

- supposedly Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, June 15th, 1999

Lifted from here and here among others.

HAHA! That's gotta be made into an SNL skit!

What a "comedy of errors!" Maybe a movie..."Gays on a Plane!"

Originally posted by Praetorius
I'm wondering if anyone can confirm if this actually happened or not,

This page has a reference to the story being as old as 1992, with USAir...
link

OMG! That was hilarious! Gave me a great laugh while I toil at the ball and chain called work.......Great post!!!

The story was posted to the usenet newsgroup soc.motss on Jan 31 1992.
Halfway down THIS page.

Personally, I'm seeing it as a wild story told in Herb Caen's column in 1992, which was then put in an Australian newspaper in 1999.
Urban legend.

reply to post by alfa1
Ah, thanks Alfa. I'll start digging on the USAir version to see what I can find. Supposedly someone on usenet verified.

Will see what turns up, much obliged.

Lmao sounds like a spoof of Spartacus.. Ta for a good laugh

Originally posted by Praetorius
I'm wondering if anyone can confirm if this actually happened or not, the newspaper referenced doesn't keep old archives, but it's apparently a real airline and had an employee by this name at one time, according to another forum:

Stand up for your rights

It has been reported that an employee for Ansett Australia (Airlines), who happened to have the last name of Gay, got on a plane recently using the company’s ‘Free Flight’ offer for staff. However, when Mr Gay tried to take his seat, he found it being occupied by a fare paying passenger. So, not to make a fuss, he simply chose another seat.

Unknown to Mr Gay, another Ansett flight at the airport experienced mechanical problems. The passengers of this flight were being re-routed to various other airplanies. A few were put on Mr Gay’s flight and anyone who was holding a ‘free’ ticket was being ‘bumped’. Ansett officials, armed with a list of these ‘freebee’ ticket holders boarded the plane, as is the practise, to remove them in favour of fare paying passengers.

Of course, our Mr Gay was not sitting in his assigned seat as you may remember, so when the Ticket Agent approached the seat where Mr Gay was supposed to be sitting, she asked a startled customer “Are you Gay?”. The man shyly nodded that he was, at which point she demanded “Then you have to get off the plane.” Mr Gay, overhearing what the agent has said, tried to clear up the situation: “You’ve got the wrong man, I’m Gay!”.

This caused an angry third passenger to yell “Hell, I’m gay too! They can’t kick us all off!”. Confusion reined as more and more passengers began yelling that Ansett had no right to remove gays from their flights.

It is reported that Ansett have refused to comment on the incident.

- supposedly Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, June 15th, 1999

Lifted from here and here among others.

edit on 9/30/2011 by Praetorius because: (no reason given)

Did you look for the Ansett website? You wouldn't find it as the airline shut down years and years and years ago.

reply to post by steveknows
Well, Ansett's website is here, but yeah, they ceased operations in 2001. Looks like a non-issue anyway since appears the story actually originated with USAir (whether true or not, that's what I'll be checking into...but am inclined to agree with Alfa so far).

Thanks though.