A woman claims that she and her family were removed from their flight after they used the incorrect pronouns when addressing staff.
Jenna Longoria, a functional nutritionist, explained that she, her mother, and her 16-month-old son were unable to board their United Airlines flight after Longoria was speaking to a flight attendant and “got their pronouns wrong.”
“I said, ‘I’m really sorry –they– I’m not very versed with pronouns, I was holding my son, who was having a temper tantrum, I had the car seat on my back, I wasn’t really focusing on anything except getting my son’s car seat on the flight and getting him comfortable and safe because now it’s his nap time.”
Longoria explained that the airline claimed she committed a “hate crime.”
Her family’s luggage, including medication, was not returned.
One flight attendant told the mother, “I gotta fact find. I gotta get my crews together. In-flight has to get their statements. I need statements. I don’t want to go verbal about what I thought I heard.”
“The captain denied you,” the flight attendant added. “And when the captain denies you, it’s end of the story.”
United Airlines responded to the incident, saying they would “like to take a closer look.”
Longoria told the airline, “Still waiting for a resolution,” emphasizing that she was “still stranded here in airport with 16-month old & a 75-yr old mother.”
The airline told a reporter with the Daily Wire that the issue was due to “too many carry-on-items.”
“A party of three traveling out of San Francisco today was not allowed to board following a discussion about having too many carry-on items,” United said. “The matter was resolved and the customers took a later United flight to finish their trip.”
The mother later told the New York Post that she called a female-identifying flight attendant “sir,” who subsequently “got upset.”
“I walked to the plane to go down the aisle. Then she held my mother back and wouldn’t let her come with me [past the gate],” Longoria said.
