September 29, 2011 6:13 AM

Southwest's business model: Discrimination isn't exactly a recipe for success

The firestorm surrounding ‘L Word’ actress Leisha Hailey’s removal off of a Southwest Airlines flight after she was allegedly kissing her partner continues to rage. Hailey and her girlfriend Camila Grey issued a statement through their electro-pop band, Uh Huh Her, in an effort to clarify Monday’s incident. “In no way were our actions on Southwest Airlines excessive, inappropriate or vulgar,” the statement said. “We want to make it clear we were not making out or creating any kind of spectacle of ourselves, it was one, modest kiss. We are responsible adult women who walk through the world with dignity.”

I’m not going to pretend to know what really happened when Leisha Hailey and her partner (yes, they’re- GASP!!- Lesbians) were kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight. There are two sides to every story, and I’d imagine that both sides are, to greater or lesser degrees, heavily engaged in trying to paint themselves in the most positive light imaginable. Hailey and her partner issued a statement, and Southwest fired back with a statement of their own. Like most conflicts, I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle, but I can’t help thinking that the greater burden in this case is borne by Southwest. After all, in an era when airlines in general are in serious financial trouble, can any airline, even one as comparatively successful as Southwest, afford to be turning away customers and possibly alienating an entire community?

Southwest’s website advertises itself as the official airline of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), but this is hardly the first time that Southwest has been involved in a contretemps involving public displays of affection between same-sex couples. The argument that Southwest is a “family airline” is, frankly, a load of crap. Yes, any business has the right to enforce standards, whether of behavior, dress, or other subjects germane to their business environment, but condoning homophobia among its employees isn’t exactly a way to attract the business of the GLBT community or anyone who believes in equality. Hailey’s argument is that Southwest personnel targeted her and her partner because of their sexual orientation:

We take full responsibility for getting verbally upset with the flight attendant after being told it was a ‘family airline.’ We were never told the reason the flight attendant approached us, we were only scolded that we ‘needed to be aware that Southwest Airlines was a family oriented airline.’ No matter how quietly homophobia is whispered, it doesn’t make it any less loud.

“Family oriented” can mean any number of things, I suppose, but I have one very simple question. Let’s assume for the sake of this argument that Hailey and her partner were being “excessively amorous”, whatever that might mean. Would Southwest personnel have acted in a similar manner if a heterosexual couple had been engaged in similar behavior? While I can’t answer that with certainty, of course, I find it difficult to believe that a heterosexual couple would have been dealt with in the manner Hailey and her partner were. My opinion isn’t the one that matters, though. What I’m very interested in is the reaction of the GLBT community, which tends not to suffer this sort of slight graciously. Hailey has already called for a boycott of Southwest, and I suspect that Southwest may just have purchased itself its own little PR nightmare.

It would be one thing if this was the first instance of a Southwest employee making a mistake and/or handling a situation poorly. Sadly, it’s not. Musician Billy Joe Armstrong was removed from a Southwest flight for wearing pants that were deemed to be hanging too low. Director Kevin Smith was also removed from a Southwest flight when airline employees alleged that Smith, whom no one would call “svelte”, couldn’t fit into a standard airline seat.

What these three incidents have in common is that they happened to celebrities with quick and easy media access. This tells me that it’s very likely that this sort of discrimination is far more common at Southwest Airlines than anyone in their PR department or senior management will admit. It appears to be a company-wide culture issue, one that’s creating the impression that Southwest is hostile towards anyone deemed to be “different”- be it gay, overweight, or dressed in a controversial manner. That Southwest doesn’t seem to understand the PR nightmare they may well be facing only demonstrates that they either don’t get or don’t care about the need to address their company’s reputation for discrimination.

Some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice

  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali

From where I sit, there’s only one conceivable way to resolve this problem. ALL of Southwest’s senior management should immediately and clearly apologize to Hailey and her partner. They need to make it crystal clear that they do not, and WILL not, condone or tolerate any sort of discrimination directed by Southwest employees against their customers. Once they’ve drawn that line in the sand, they must then go about changing the culture of discrimination that seems to exist within Southwest. Employees must be thoroughly trained and made to understand that no discrimination of ANY sort will be tolerated by Southwest. It should be made clear to employees that Southwest values ALL of their customers, and that any behavior that runs counter to this value will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.

Once this has been done, Southwest should contract with an independent third party to monitor compliance, catalog complaints, and identify ongoing issues. Southwest needs to make it clear that they “get it.”

If Southwest continues as they have been, they deserve to be boycotted. Discrimination cannot and must not be tolerated, and it’s made even more reprehensible when a company’s culture seems to make discrimination both possible and condoned.

What Would Herb Kelleher Do??

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on September 29, 2011 6:13 AM.

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