September 28, 2011
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Less than a month after telling a rock star to pull up his saggy pants, a US airline on Tuesday found itself in another celebrity row -- this time over a same-sex kiss.
Cable TV star Leisha Hailey and partner Camila Grey say they were ordered off a Southwest Airlines flight after they disagreed with a flight attendant who told them to stop smooching on "a family airline."
Southwest acknowledged that the crew of the flight from Baltimore, Maryland to St. Louis, Missouri had approached the couple, but "solely (on the basis of) behavior and not gender" after other passengers complained.
It offered to "work directly" with them to offer "heartfelt apologies" -- but in a statement issued through their Los Angeles publicist, the couple said they would press ahead with "a formal complaint."
"No matter how quietly homophobia is whispered, it doesn't make it any less loud," they said. "We ask this airline to teach their employees to not discriminate against any couple, ever, regardless of their own beliefs."
Earlier this month, Southwest -- the largest domestic US airline -- apologized after Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong tweeted that he had been kicked off a flight "because my pants sagged too low."
Hailey starred in "The L Word", a gay-themed drama set in Los Angeles that ran from 2004 to 2009 on the Showtime channel, and teamed up with Grey in 2007 to launch an indie electro band called Uh Huh Her.
