Same-Sex Family Southwest Refused to Allow to Board as a Family Says Airline Still Hasn’t Even Contacted Them

‘I Feel as Though We Were Profiled the Minute We Walked Up the Boarding Area’

Grant Morse says Southwest Airlines still hasn’t even bothered to contact him or his husband Sam after the airline refused to allow them, their three young children, and 83-year old grandmother to get on their Buffalo to Fort Lauderdale flight during the family boarding period this past weekend.

Morse told local news stations that the airline’s gate agent repeatedly and “aggressively” told them, “This is for family boarding only,” and that he was “humiliated” and made to feel like a “criminal” while having to defend his family’s status.

“As of this moment,” Morse wrote on Facebook Tuesday night, “I still have not received any type of contact from Southwest Airlines. I will now take legal action. If any damages are recovered, they will be donated to charities that educate tolerance and how discrimination is never acceptable,” Morse said.

On Saturday, he says, the agent told them: “This is for family boarding only and you are not permitted to board. This is only for family, and I told you that already.”

Her supervisor agreed.

Morse told WBBH he’s actually a frequent Southwest flier, accruing one million miles annually. 

“I feel as though we were profiled the minute we walked up the boarding area,” Morse told WGRZ.

Southwest, instead of contacting Morse and his family, issued a public statement defending their actions.

“The conversation in the boarding area had nothing to do with discrimination,” Southwest claims.

The statement says the issue was with the 83-year old grandmother, who was traveling with them. She was later placed in an emergency exit row seat.

“I have never seen an 83-year-old woman that weighs about 110 pounds be capable of lifting a 40-pound door and throwing it out of the way, in case an emergency evacuation had to occur,” Morse also told WGRZ.

Morse apparently has filed a ccomplaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation, posting the response on Facebook.

Thanking his family and friends “for your love and support during this very painful and challenging time,” Morse says, “I am going to do everything that I can do to put this behind me and continue to the best spouse that I can be and to continue to nurture my three beautiful children into accepting, loving, caring and bright individuals.”

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Image by Tomás Del Coro via Flickr and a CC license