Seriously wrong
Given all of the drama United Airlines has been through over the last few weeks, one would think they’ve had their fill. Apparently, not just yet.
The Chicago based carrier recently had to offer an apology to a gay dad after a flight attendant accused him of having his hands too close to his son’s genitals.
The father wrote the following in a Facebook group called DADsquared.
“The post was shared hundreds of times after being written on Saturday morning and thousands of times on other Facebook pages.
In the post, Joel Amador-Batten wrote that his family was traveling back to North Carolina after his husband spent the last two weeks in Puerto Rico to handle his father’s death. The family was traveling on a flight from Newark, which was a stopover between Puerto Rico and RDU.
When they arrived at RDU, he wrote that Henry Amador-Batten was detained by RDU police for about an hour while trying to disembark the plane because a flight member had accused him of inappropriately touching his son.
Amador-Batten continued in the post writing that his husband’s hand was just laying across his son’s lap while their son slept on the plane.
“This is not something that anyone should have to worry about happening to them on a flight just because someone might not like the looks of them”
More: Gay dads refused boarding by Southwest gate agent
Apparently, Henry and his five-year-old Ben were on their way back from home when the incident occurred.
As reported by Queerty, Joel shared his side of the story on his husband’s Facebook page, a community called Dadsquared started by Amadon-Batten as an online meeting place for gay dads.
According to the post, United offered an apology for the incident.
“Our customers should always be treated with the utmost respect. We have followed up with the customer directly and we apologized for the situation.”
“This is not how anyone deserves to be treated,” writes Amadon-Batten who runs the group.
“This is not something that should have happened in front of my son. This is not something that anyone should have to worry about happening to them on a flight just because someone might not like the looks of them.”
The incident has caused upset for the 5-year old, per the posting.
“Ben is obviously processing something, he’s not sleeping in his own bed, wants to be with his daddies much more than usual right now,” Amadon-Batten tells Scary Mommy. “He’s feeling very sensitive and in need of a lot of love right now.”
And it looks like United may be sued for what is alleged to have happen, per Herald Sun's reporting:
“In response to the incident, the family said it has hired a lawyer and is planning on seeking damages from United.
“Based on the horrible situation that they placed him in front of their son and other people on the plane, we are going to vigorously pursue to be compensated by the airline for this horrible embarrassing treatment,” said Kenneth Padowitz, a Florida-based criminal defense attorney representing Amador-Batten.
“To have your young child see you be stopped by the police and be questioned like you have done something wrong based on nothing would cause any traveler to be mortified,” he added. “That type of emotional distress and improper persecution of one of their customers based off zero evidence needs to be rectified.”
h/t: Queerty
