[EnderD_503]

I agree what with some posters have said about the report on this being really fucking vague. It all comes down to what the airline considers "excessive" and what the couple was actually doing. What is "excessive," and, like the OP said, is "excessive" the same for heterosexual and queer couples?

The way I read the article in the OP, it makes me think that both sides were "right" to some extent. I didn't know who Leisha Hailey was until I read the article (I've never watched the L Word, really), but once I saw she was a celebrity of some sort it made me question her testimony more than I would of had they been a non-celebrity couple. Celebrities often seem to be really attention-grabbing, anything for the headlines type of people. It wouldn't be totally surprising, to me anyway, for a celebrity to think the rules didn't apply to them and then scream discrimination when someone subjects them to the same rules as everyone else (Paris Hilton and her drunk driving, celebrities in rehab, celebrities generally behaving horribly in public and expecting that the law exempt them from equal treatment). This "above the law" mentality isn't uncommon.

That being said, I also think there was more than likely a rather big tinge of homophobia going on with passengers reporting these supposedly "excessive" (again, wtf is excessive?) activities. I'm originally from Ontario, but have frequently in another province and even out of Canada for various periods of time. Because of that, I've spent a fair amount of time on planes and during that time I've been annoyed a number of times by heterosexual couples deciding to have a heavily gropey make-out session two centimetres from my face while waiting in line to get off the plane. That seems to be their usual chosen spot for said make-out sessions. Besides people rolling their eyes or looking away, no one has said shit and the flight attendants didn't say shit either...and really there's no reason to. Granted, they were never an American airline (and Europeans tend to view public displays of affection differently), but still, I've never heard of heterosexuals being kicked off planes for public displays of affection (when did we start abbreviating that, btw?).

That said, it seems like the actress made a gigantic scene after the flight attendants approached her, which probably didn't help matters. Imo, there's a difference between silencing yourself/not being heard when you're being discriminated against, and waiting for a time/place where you will actually be properly heard and make a difference (for example, waiting until they were in a position to make a formal complaint or take it to court). I don't think making a scene on a flight waiting to take off was conducive to getting her point across that this was more than likely a case of homophobia.

So yeah, I think it was definitely a homophobic call simply because it seems that heterosexual aren't held up to the same standard of what is "excessive" or not on airlines (and in society, for that matter). Even if this couple was being excessive, why were they called out if heterosexual couples are not? The rules need to apply to everyone if they're going to be there at all. It just shows prevailing public mentality of homosexuality being more "perverse" by its very nature than heterosexuality.