Woman claims she, her toddler son and mother were kicked off United plane for misgendering flight attendant
A woman claims that she, her 16-month-old son and her mother were prevented from flying with United Airlines because she misgendered a flight attendant before boarding.
The woman, identified as Jenna Longoria of Texas, relayed the ordeal in a series of videos recorded at the airport and posted on Instagram and X.
In the videos, Longoria explains that she was trying to board a flight from San Francisco to Austin with her family.
"I was speaking to one of the flight attendants, got their pronouns wrong, the other flight attendant didn’t like it," Longoria claimed.
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Longoria said she apologized, explaining that she’s "not very well versed with pronouns."
"I was holding my son, he was having a temper tantrum, I had the car seat on my back. I wasn’t really focusing on anything except getting my son’s car seat on the flight and getting him comfortable," Longoria said.
She alleged that United staff accused her of a "hate crime" and told her that she might be banned from flying with United.
Longoria told FOX Business that a United Airport Operations supervisor escorted her and her family away from the area and told them it was the captain who made the final call for her family not to board.
FOX Business reached out to United for its side of the story.
United neither confirmed nor denied that Longoria and her family were kicked off because she had supposedly misgendered one of the flight attendants.
"A party of three traveling out of San Francisco today was not allowed to board following a discussion about having too many carry-on items," United said. "The matter was resolved and the customers took a later United flight to finish their trip."
Longoria said the explanation was "bewildering" because she had the same amount of carry-on items on the way to San Francisco as she did on the return flight. When recounting the incident to FOX Business, Longoria called it "uneventful."
Longoria said a United staffer at first wouldn't let her pre-board with her 16-month-old son, but eventually relented. Longoria said the staffer became upset and was "shaking," after Longoria remarked, "Thank you, sir."
Longoria told FOX Business that the staffer would not let her mother board with her, leaving her to carry her son and the heavy carseat and stroller alone. When Longoria asked for help from another flight attendant, she alleged that he scolded her for referring to the earlier staffer as a "she."
"I said, ‘look, I don’t know. He, she, they, I'm not versed in my pronouns, can you help me with my son?' And he said, ‘ma'am, you’re going to have to step off the plane," Longoria said. "He made me stand at the front of the plane, and said assistance would be coming for me."
Longoria told FOX Business she was particularly irked that United wouldn't retrieve their luggage because it was holding their medications.
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Longoria said she was eventually able to secure another flight and make it home after several more hours at the airport.
"We were in San Francisco. Everybody looks the same. Sometimes it's hard in San Francisco to know if someone is a man or a woman or feminine or which way they're going. If they're trans or transitioning. But you know, that's their business. I don't care," Longoria said. "All I was focused on was my son, getting him in the seat. I made a slip."