Kissing a girl on a plane can get you kicked off if you fly Southwest

by

comment

40d3192cbb8ff015f90e6a70670033a0.jpg
If you're familiar with the Showtime show The L-Word, then you remember outspoken character Alice. The actress who played Alice, Leisha Hailey, found herself in a real-life episode that would make for great TV.

A lesbian actress who starred in "The L-Word" says she kissed a girl — and got escorted off of a Southwest Airlines flight for doing it.

Leisha Hailey took to Twitter on Monday to call for a boycott of the carrier after a flight attendant told them other passengers had complained after witnessing the affection.

Her first tweet said: "I have been discriminated against." She later added, "Since when is showing affection to someone you love illegal?"

Southwest Airlines Co. responded on its website that Hailey was approached "based solely on behavior and not gender." The airline's four-sentence response said passengers were characterizing the behavior as excessive.

A discussion followed on the flight, and the airline said it "escalated to a level that was better resolved on the ground."

Stop me if this story sounds familiar. Here in Charlotte, a local bar, Dixie's Tavern, had a similar situation happen in January.

Tracy Thomas said she and her friend Kelly Johnson created the page after visiting Dixie's Tavern on Seventh Street in uptown Charlotte on Dec. 17 about dinnertime. She says they grew upset after about 20 minutes passed and no waiter came to their table, although waiters were serving tables nearby.

When they finally got to put in their drink order, Thomas said, another 10 minutes passed before it came so they decided to leave. She said a member of the staff asked if they were going to pay for the drinks and they said no.

They said as they walked out that the staffer said, "Good, we don't want to serve lesbians here anyway," followed by cuss words and other degrading comments.

Dixie's apologized after a Facebook page popped up calling for a boycott of the bar.

Will Southwest, the official airline of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, offer an apology in order to keep this designation?

Or, was the airline within its rights to ask the couple to stop the PDA?