Posted on 10/06/2005 1:47:52 PM PDT by crazyhorse691
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A woman was booted off a Southwest Airlines flight for wearing a T-shirt that bore an expletive and images of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Lorrie Heasley of Woodland, Wash., said she plans to press a civil-rights complaint against the airline over Tuesday's action at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, halfway through Heasley's scheduled trip from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore.
"I have cousins in Iraq and other relatives going to war," Heasley told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane ... over a T-shirt. That's not freedom."
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said several passengers complained about the shirt.
Heasley, a 32-year-old lumber saleswoman, said passengers began complaining after she and her husband, Ron, moved to the front of the cabin in Reno.
She agreed to cover the words with a sweatshirt, but when the sweatshirt slipped while she was trying to sleep, she was ordered to wear her T-shirt inside-out or leave.
She and her husband left. They arrived home in a rental car Wednesday afternoon.
McInnis said Southwest rules allow the airline to deny boarding to any passenger whose clothing is "lewd, obscene or patently offensive."
But Allen Lichtenstein, lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in Las Vegas, said it "might be problematic" that the airline "changed rules in the middle of a flight."
Heasley said she has been in touch with ACLU lawyers in Seattle, and wants Southwest to reimburse her for the last leg of the trip.
The freedom not to be offended is only for endangered species and certain liberal minorities.
Fine with Sean. No censorship. UGH
If she wanted to follow the rule, she could easily have turned it inside out. She's probably an immature attention seeker. Oh, I long for the days when most grown ups were actually adults.
susie
It's a doggone shame they kicked her off the plane before take-off.
For which side?
That's the end of it, right there.
Well, there ya go! Her T-shirt was proudly emblazoned with the F-word.
Used to be that folks would wear their Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes when you'd fly.
But rules and norms don't apply to the unhappy Lefties.
Might not be problematic either you pathetic gadfly. Shove your nuisance suit where the sun don't shine, and tell your client not to go around with offensive profanity on her clothing.
What if her shirt had said F**K N*****S? Would the left be upset about the airline violating her freedom of speech by forcing her to wear the shirt inside out? Would the ACLU be defending her rights?
Of course not. This has nothing to do with freedom of speech. It is all about the content. The left, and the ACLU, simply like the content of her "speech."
Haha, best post!
susie
The best ever was in SFO. Just came in from 2 weeks in Asia and a little culture shocked. Some bozo had an accordian and proceeded to play it all the way from SFO to SEA.
Next tie she flies, she should try using her free speech by wearing a T-Shirts that say things like this and see what happens:
"I'M A TERRORIST"
"HIJACKER"
"I HAVE A GUN"
"I CRASH PLANES INTO BUILDINGS"
"THERE'S A BOMB ON THIS PLANE"
Watch for this woman being on an upcoming segment of “Airline” on the A & E Channel.
The Southwest Airlines show has episodes originating from the LAX terminal.
"Her freedom of speech ended when it offended other passengers."
That is not the standard we want.... think how many people might say are offended by conservative, Republican and/Christian tee shirts or symbols.
For speech to be banned it needs to be harmful, not just offensive.
I never understand much of anything Hannity says. He touches on 27 topics in less than 30 seconds using 53 pronouns. Hannity seems to me as the equivalent an ADS butterfly. And his grammar is horrible. Did you know he is a Great American, and wrote a book while dining at Ruth's Criss steakhouse?
She said she was wearing it for her parents,...that they would get a big yuck. They raised a fine one.
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