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Sydney Morning Herald Monday, June 15th 1999:
"An employee for Ansett Australia, who happened to
have the last name of GAY, got on a plane recently
using one of his company's "Free Flight" programmes.
However, when Mr. Gay tried to take his seat, he
found it being occupied by a paying passenger. So, not to
make a fuss, he simply chose another seat.
Unknown to Mr. Gay, another Ansett Australia flight
at the airport experienced mechanical problems. The
passengers of this other flight were being rerouted
to various airplanes. 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 to remove the free
ticket holders. 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 Ticket Agent had 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 reigned as more and more passengers
began yelling that Ansett Australia had no right to
remove gays from their flights.
Ansett refused to comment on the incident.
"An employee for Ansett Australia, who happened to
have the last name of GAY, got on a plane recently
using one of his company's "Free Flight" programmes.
However, when Mr. Gay tried to take his seat, he
found it being occupied by a paying passenger. So, not to
make a fuss, he simply chose another seat.
Unknown to Mr. Gay, another Ansett Australia flight
at the airport experienced mechanical problems. The
passengers of this other flight were being rerouted
to various airplanes. 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 to remove the free
ticket holders. 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 Ticket Agent had 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 reigned as more and more passengers
began yelling that Ansett Australia had no right to
remove gays from their flights.
Ansett refused to comment on the incident.
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