A United Airlines passenger flying from San Francisco to Austin with her young child was kicked off her flight on Wednesday after misgendering a flight attendant. It’s disputed whether the misgendering incident is the only reason for her removal.
Jenna Longoria was traveling with her 16-month-old son and her mother. She says that the misgendering was an accident. The airline, though, says that “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.” It seems likely that’s when the pronoun discussion occurred.
Last year United Airlines introduced wings with crew names and pronouns. These replaced separate nametags and crew wings.
According to her, she said “thank you, sir” to a flight attendant who identifies as a woman. Despite her immediate apology, explaining that she was preoccupied with her toddler and not good at preferred pronouns, things escalated. She says another flight attendant confronted her about the mistake during boarding.
United says they had too many carry-ons, and that eventually the woman was rebooked on a later flight. There’s often confusion over bringing on car seats and strollers and how those interact with standard carry-on limits.
Longoria took to Instagram to share what happened, with multiple videos about her side of the story. She was holding her son, who was having a tantrum, and carrying a car seat.
The woman tells her story from the jetbridge of the aircraft:
Here she is filming her interaction with United’s customer service after being kicked off the aircraft. I thought the employee handled this well, and non-confrontationally. She wasn’t accusatory. She didn’t get into debating what happened. She explained that it would be a mistake to go off of hearsay, where something might have been misheard. Instead, she could only work with the captain’s decision not to allow the passenger to fly.
Finally, off the aircraft and inside the terminal, she recaps her experience including not knowing how she was going to get home to Texas.
While Longoria says flight attendants accused her of committing a hate crime and suggested she might be permanently banned from flying with United Airlines, she was not at least so far. The airline did ultimately rebook her on a later flight:
Broadly speaking, while airlines like many big corporations have moved towards inclusiveness and recognizing the diverse backgrounds of their employees and making customers from all walks of life feel welcome, United has been the most ‘woke’ – supporting affirmative action in California, committing to choosing board members based on race and imposing speech codes.
This “pronoun” bullshit is just another facet of the liberal stupidity that has run rampant since brain dead Biden was fraudulently “elected” and installed in the White House. United airlines should be blasted for the ignorant crew member wings they came out with. Liberalism is a mental disease.
English language says they is plural not singular. There are times when names can be used for male female. “Taylor”. But does UA not have dress codes based on biology. Can a male wear a skirt as their uniform with heals
Thanks, Gary. United went on my “never fly no matter what” list after the Dr. David Dao incident, this latest incident only reaffirms my position.
I have been called name many times because of my accent from foreign telemarketers and customer service agents. We talk to fast for them.
It is not an issue get a life get over it grow up it is not a major event and if it is to you, then you have nothing else important in your life
Stupid woke nonsense escalated needlessly.
Why don’t airlines of US focus on providing better service than wear the woke badge on their sleeves??
I am very suspicious.
Sounds like an opportunist passenger with excessive carry-on (possibly on a base fare) who got angry at crew enforcing the rules and now is trying to paint the interaction as one of crazed woke lefties trying to impose their values on the silent majority.
Culture wars about “wokeness” always play well with America’s religious right, who decry “cancel culture” while practising it to the hilt, and I’m suspicious that we are watching a passenger who tried to get an unpaid-for baggage allowance look to harvest sympathy from the “go woke go broke” brigade.
More wokery. These d
people playing the gender card love playing the victim. Their pronouns are : Me. Me. Victim. They need to get over themselves and accept other can make mistakes. Remember mistakes?
If you are a man you look like a man. You are a sir not a they/them or a she to strangers
I know I’m not focused on someone’s id badge on a uniform with pronouns
My gut says this was more about carry-on luggage than a pronoun mistake. Unless the child had their own ticket, then the child seat needed to be checked, otherwise it counts as carry-on. If the seat was ticketed then the seat is not carryon. I’m at the point where infants and toddlers should need a ticket, perhaps a basic one that only allows for a car seat (or seat restraint) and a small diaper bag, no full-size carry-on. That would be both safer and eliminate the carry-on confusion.
I’m all for using someone’s chosen gender and pronouns, but mistakes do happen and it’s important not to get upset over them. I am a guy with long hair and I have been called “maam” when viewed from the back (in winter clothes). It wasn’t a big deal.
These passengers and their non-compliance and lies are so ridiculous.
The customer service rep said, “There was some more I heard that you had with inflight…” But this woman is trying to make her HORRIBLE day (like getting on the very next flight) seem like such an attach on her personally, because of some ridiculous accusation about pronouns. The captain would not kick someone off for such a minor accident. Much more likely that she was horrible TO the flight attendants and ruined their day.
This was a hate crime? They may be banned from United forever? So much ado about nothing. Yeah, rebooked immediately. So much victimhood for this entitled woman who was on the very next flight. If anyone even used the words “hate crime,” that says to me she may have used the F-slur at that FA, and THAT would get you kicked off, especially if the captain is one too.
Passengers with bad behavior should be booted more often. It’s not your plane, you share it with the rest of us – grow up and be respectful. This is certainly a preferable outcome to being duct taped to your seat because you tried to open the door, or being arrested like that woman who wouldn’t agree to help with the emergency door. Why give this woman, who is clearly shading the truth to drive traffic to her digital content, @theperiodguru, any benefit of the doubt. Middle aged complaining Karens (even WITH a toddler) do not get to perform with bad behavior without consequences. She should be glad she was only bumped and not arrested, and I say that as someone who recognizes we are too quick to make infractions illegal just as a pretense to arrest people.
Will she learn to treat FA’s and the rest of the PAX with more courtesy and respect from now on? Based on these videos, and that have been deleted already, probably not.
DavidF, I don’t know.
Even the employee in the video only mentioned what came out of her mouth.
Admittedly, it is difficult to keep up these days. Everyone wants something different.
I have been around a very diverse group over the years. They definitely do not all agree on what they want to be called, how they want to be recognized, or if they believe people are allowed to make a mistake.
My best course of action is just go the other. I could care less what anyone else does with their life, but do not persecute me simply because of not being able to keep up with the inconsistency of it all.
I’m sure that male flight attendant gets called sir all the time. If he asked for every passenger to get kicked off that did it, then United would be flying half empty planes. The too many carryons is the more likely reason.
United is not that desperate to fill seats but the getting “onboard” with the pronoun crowd is unnecessary corporate pandering. They need to dump this cute little trend. I don’t need to see a label to show you courtesy.
There is no such thing as transgender. These people are just mentally ill and should be allowed to work safety sensitive jobs.
Would feel safe with a “trans” pilot?
if the alphabet people want to make it an issue of “thank you, sir”, that’s their problem. My name is Stephen but people sometimes call me Steve. I don’t lose my mind over it. Passengers are not responsible or accountable for employee’s mental illness.
If the discussion escalated into a shouting match or the pax had too many carry ons, that is a totally different issue.
Doubt is was about misgendering. This is another Dao-like BS.
Its funny coming from this blob who looks like a drag queen herself.
The “misgendering” thing implodes under the left’s own artificial rules. They hold a person can be any gender or in-betweener based exclusively on how that person feels on that day. There’s no “dress code” or requirements that have to be met to sufficiently signal to the public exactly what the heck the person is trying to be. Therefore, in a rational world, you can’t hold a person liable for being unable to perceive the subjective intent of the other. I’m not going to try to squint at name tags, etc. to figure it out. It’s not my problem and I don’t care that much about what a stranger is trying to do. If you get misgendered enough that it seems beyond accidental, then maybe make better efforts to conform with a quality specimen of the gender that you’re “shooting for.”
Of course, a big part of this can be filed under caveat emptor.
Mom with a young child from TX went to SFO and was caught off guard by extreme wokery.
If you go to the bay area, this (and so much more) is exactly what you signed up for.
I’m a gay man and this is just ridiculous, I don’t care what u wear, if you have a penis, you are still MALE a vagina, you are still FEMALE,, U have a penis and wear a dress, you are merely a BOY in a dress, GROW UP
This is too much. Boycott UA!
Something stinks about this whole thing. All of the B S about “misgendering” crap has got to stop. I have accidentally said, “ma’am” or “sir” numerous times. There was no intent to humiliate anyone…just a simple mistake. If I catch it, I always apologize. The Declaration of Independence states “…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It does not guarantee happiness. It doesn’t guarantee that a person is immune from being offended. In my opinion, many of these people who claim “You misgendered me” are just looking for a fight. They are so insecure in their own person, regardless of their claimed sexual preference, that they will take out that insecurity on a person who a simple mistake. Grow up, people.
These pronoun idiots will be the downfall of our society. They don’t deserve respect.
Good for my Hometown Airline. The woman was a bigot and deserved what she got. By the way, so did Dao. And as for the anti-woke brigade here, I’ll be supping on your sweet, sweet tears on the night of November 5th as you lose and your boy gets fitted for the orange jumpsuit that matches his skin.
I will continue to avoid United Airlines whenever I can. It is my little contribution to show how much they lose with this stupid way of doing business.
Without actual video proof from either passenger/UA of what really happened, it’s “I said she said”
They claim to have clear name/pronoun tags but I don’t see it on that employee! The sweater might be blocking it, she needs to not wear the sweater. Oh on second thought Don’t Expect Customers to read your minds!
This obsession with pronouns and butt-hurt feelings associated with it is absurd. A dude is a dude. If he wants to pretend to be a chick and someone doesn’t go along, let it go for cripes sake. Get a freaking life. Not everyone wants to be part of your psychosis. And shame on UA for encouraging this crap. UA is my mainstay and have treated me well, but news items like these do give me pause.
She’s an “influencer”. This is the viral moment she’s been hoping for.
@DavidF and @Ron, your theories about this being something other than just the conversation are simply untrue. In the videos, it was not only the woman who said it, but more importantly the United Gate Agent who specifically said that it was “the conversation”.
Hate crime? If this is a hate crime, nothing is a hate crime.
Just stop it already.
Put here on a Greyhound until she learns to RESPECT EVERYONE – She said more than she’s admitting to –
Too many carry-ons? Or was it misgendering? Life has taught me that the truth is always somewhere in the middle. Without knowing all of the facts, my guess is she probably had too many carry-ons and a UA agent told her so…passenger then got pissy and in the confrontation that ensued, called the agent by the wrong gender label. The agent was mad about the passenger arguing and used the misgendering bit as a tool to boot her, and it escalated from there. My guess is both the passenger and agent were to blame for allowing this to escalate the way it did. Again, though, that’s just a guess, but the most plausible scenario I can come up with.
Just my opinion, but there was more than just name calling. Just looking at her “child” I’m guessing he’s wayyyy too old for that pacifier.
Maybe she needs one too?
I am 100% behind calling people by their preferred gender, but I am also in my late 40s and wear bifocals. There’s no way in hell I’m gonna be able to read that tiny font the pronouns are written in.
The anti-woke crowd is outraged over nothing because the angry charlatans on television told them to be, but on the other hand some grace is needed: If this story is as the passenger claims, the apology should have been sufficient.
That said, almost guaranteed the passenger did more than just a slip of the tongue.
It’s interesting how so many comments are about woke and liberal politics gone amuck, while so few are actually wondering whether the airline actually had to reaccommodate the pax due to carryon issues as stated.
Easier to feign outrage I suppose than to consider the other side of the story and whether there’s any validity to it.
Not a fan of Wokism, but I guarantee you there is more to this story than what the woman is claiming. Before you amplify accusations, you need to do investigation. Sometimes the airlines would rather not talk about it, but taking this woman’s accusations at face value and whipping up your readers about them is wrong.
Just another MAGA snowflake trying to blame someone else for their ignorance. She was deboarded because she made a scene about carryons. She lies by trying to make it out to be a “pronoun” issue. Conservatives lie lie lie, whine whine whine.
@Edward, oh and libs don’t lie and they don’t whine? Really? From what I’ve seen all across the media, libs are the absolute worst with their lies and scheming.
@Edward – Did Trump pee in your Wheaties this morning or what? He’s obviously living in your head rent free, buddy. HAHAHA
David R Miller LOL This is so typical of Republitard logic. Every accusation is a confession. Electric boats attracting sharks…grab them by the pu**sy, and the best inject them with bleach to cure covid. But “Sleepy Joe” is the problem…meanwhile Trump falling asleep at his own trial….read it again…EVERY ACCUSATION IS A CONFESSION.
You don’t get booted from a flight for too many carry on bags, full stop. This is a mentally ill FA who is under the mistaken belief that their gender is not what in reality it is. I.e. psychotic. Mentally ill people when challenged with their false reality will lash out. It is obvious that this is what happened…and once their precious sensibilities were questioned, they looked for any reason to boot the passenger. Much easier to boot the passenger then get into some HR issue with an entitled protected class.
The unintended consequences of all this wokeness, tender leftists, is that people will just not want to engage at all with anyone else they don’t know. Just keep your head down, shut up, no eye contact…making everyone more and more anti-social and miserable, and thus creating larger and larger rifts in society. What a wonderful world we live in now.
I hope Delta and American do the same so the MAGA cult boycotts them forever.
Do the airlines ban Felons and Rapists from flying?
Everyone mis-speaks at some point, common mistakes. If this is the actual reason a passenger was removed from the flight then United is on the WRONG path.
It would be advantageous for United to focus on other things, like its subpar catering.
Most of us in developed countries outside North America consider issues like preferred pronouns to be utterly trivial, so it is no inconvenience for us to address people however they want to be addressed. It’s just basic respect for others.
But a strange conservative right has exploded in the US and is metastasising to infect other western societies. The recent past of segregation and racism and colonialism was somehow better than “wokery”. The Bible’s rather strong teaching about homosexuality is embraced by people who ignore its prohibition on straight sex outside marriage or its direction that rapists should marry their victims.
And now this Disneyland of Selective Christianity is expanding to promote Conservative Cancel Culture of anything which can be charged with being woke. Didn’t get to travel with carry-on you didn’t pay for? Blame pronouns in the Bay Area.
Really, anyone who ever uses the words “woke” or “wokery” really needs to take a good hard look at how and why they demonise the present when the recent past was so evil and wicked.
The airline has been clear: this was a case of a passenger trying to bring on board excessive, unpurchased carry-on. That we let the miscreant pander to the prejudices of the far-right by invoking wokery tells you everything you need to know about the issue.
BTW, I’m ancient and I still never use terms aligned with gender when not needed. “Thank you” not “thank you, sir” “the other F/A asked already” not “she asked already.” Whether you think the pronoun issue is BS or not, why invite trouble?
The reason this sounds so absurd is because it’s just a made up story. What kind of person walks around all day taking movies of themself talking into a phone?
This is he said/she said/(they said?) until there’s video evidence of the exchange.
But United sucks for a lot of reasons so I almost never fly them.
I think there are facts to this story that aren’t out, like what the convo really was between the woman and the gate agent (?) or FA that finally got her booted. One thing I noticed is that in the first video she says the flight is to Austin, and in the next one she says it’s to Dallas. Maybe a stopover? She also seems to exaggerate or obfuscate the importance of the meds she left on the plane. At first she’s concerned about her son’s medication, next video she claims she’ll get very sick without her thyroid medication. I take a thyroid med and can go without it for days. Not saying she’s on the same med, just think that again she’s contradicting herself. So to damn the airline for “wokeness” is a little premature, without knowing what it really was the woman did.