Two flight attendants, who were fired from their Alaska Airlines jobs after questioning the company’s support for the LGBTQ-driven “Equality Act,” are asking a federal District Court to grant summary judgement in their favor.
In 2021, Alaska Airlines announced that it supported the Equality Act, a divisive bill that aims to change the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include “gender identity and sexual orientation” among the legally recognized “non-discrimination” classifications. This would mandate that Americans accommodate and facilitate behavior and events associated with the LGBTQ movement in private establishments, schools, churches, business, health care, entertainment and many other areas.
The airline’s support for the Equality Act was posted on an internal employee message board and included an invitation for employees to comment on the decision. Employee Lacey Smith posted a question, asking, “As a company, do you think it’s possible to regulate morality?” In the same forum, a second flight attendant, Marli Brown, asked, “Does Alaska support: endangering the Church, encouraging suppression of religious freedom, obliterating women rights and parental rights? ….” Both plaintiffs were subsequently investigated, questioned by airline authorities, and terminated.
First Liberty Institute and the Ard Law Group filed a motion earlier this month for summary judgement on behalf of the flight attendants who sued Alaska Airlines and the Association of Flight Attendants union (“AFA”) in May 2022 after the airline terminated the women because they asked questions in a company forum, and the union failed to adequately defend them.
Alaska Airlines VP of Inflight testified that an employee’s use of the term “opposite sex” violates the Airlines’ discrimination policy because that implies that there are only two sexes.
“Alaska Airlines has made it clear that employees who hold traditional Christian beliefs must stay silent if they want to keep their jobs,” said Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “Now, we clearly see that Alaska Airlines’ obsessive focus on DEI created a hostile work environment for anyone who dares disagree with the company about moral issues.”
Court documents filed on Jan. 16 reveal that the union MEC President reported the flight attendants’ comments to Alaska Airlines leadership. In a company chat among union representatives, one stated, “Can we PLEASE get someone to shut down comments, or put Marli and Lacey in a burlap bag and drop them in a well.” Union representatives repeatedly disparaged the flight attendants, calling them “bigots” and “pukes.” Referring to Smith, the Union President said, “I hate her.”
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
Alaska Airlines’ decision to fire the women was in sharp contrast with how it treated allegations of anti-Christian discrimination or harassment. When a flight attendant was accused of anti-Christian “hate speech” and making a “threat of violence,” stating, “Any Christian that thinks like this should have their teeth kicked in!” on his social media using the Alaska Airlines logo for his social media cover photos, he was given the lowest level of discipline.
First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
CONTACTS TO RESPECTFULLY SHARE YOUR OPIONIONS
— Alaska Airlines Corporate Offices: P.O. Box 68900, Seattle, WA 98168. Phone: 206-433-3200
22 Comments
Religion is poison,
Except yours of course, correct?
We can reliably count on Lucy to disparage everyone here. She lives in a country based upon Judeo-Christian ethics and morals, and reaps the benefits of that, but refuses to acknowledge that she is the priviledged recipient of the benefits of a rational God. She is nothing but a troll, and yet we must pray for her depraved and envious soul.
Pray all you want Tamra. Won’t affect me. Nothing fails as reliably as prayer.
Here’s why I care that people reject religion. If a person believes in ghosts, fairies, demons, angels, dead man returning to life, birth without intercourse, talking snakes, the big flood etc., then they are likely to make poor decisions as a citizen. Like at school board meetings or libraries or other decision making bodies.
I’m pro science. Science flies you to the moon; religion flies you into buildings.
Thomas Jefferson wrote a secular version of the bible, the concept of the separation of church and state is enshrined in the constitution. The fact of the matter is if the founders of this nation wanted a Christian nation they would have made it law, yet it’s clearly not.
Luc…
He who denies the existence of God, has some reason for wishing that God did not exist!
St. Augustine 354-430
I do wonder what your reason is ?
1 PETER 5.8
Anon. Your premise is flawed. Who cares what St. Augustine wrote?
Some religions are. Mine declares that I have a Heavenly Father that loves me so very much that He would die for me, and He did!
Everybody has to believe something, otherwise they’d never get out of bed in the morning. What are the fruits of your belief system? Are they bitter and poisonous?
Pretty deplorable. AK Air is doing exactly what they proclaim they are standing against. They are discriminatory, racist, inequitable, hateful, judgmental and are essentially “DIE supremacists”. Laughable if not so shocking.
I could not have expressed it any more succinctly ! It was also a major red flag when they were promoting and selling BLM T Shirts with joint BLM / Alaska Airlines logos.. Every Corporation should stay the hell away from divisive politics, but this latest DEI shit is probably an “order from above”…. Meet DEI objectives or have preferential finance rates withdrawn…. Try getting money for hydrocarbon development in Alaska !
Alaska Airlines has certainly gone down hill since the retirement of former AK Air President Kennedy who took his family and went off to the foreign mission field. He would.never have tolerated such intolerance. If I can help it, I don’t fly AK AIR any more.
We started driving down South instead of flying for this exact reason. I hope Alaska AIrlines goes the way of Disney, Bud Light, etc…
I just had my 1st-Class return flight cancelled by AK Air, after setting up months in advance. The direct flight Kahului-Anchorage was cancelled, instead of flights to Seattle. AK Air emailed a lie that my flight was being rescheduled. They followed up with another email that no flights were available. After being totally abandoned by callous Ak Air, I managed to piece together a trip to Seattle, sleep on the cold floor at the Seattle airport, with a follow-on flight to Anchorage the next day. If Ak Air was not so focused on DEI, perhaps they could keep their planes in the air, doors from getting blown-out inflight, and take some courses in courtesy. Maybe CEO Ben Minicucci should spend a night sleeping on the floor at the Seattle airport.
I feel your pain Steve but your conclusion is not logically supported by the evidence you present
If the focus is on non-flying issues, problems will arise with airframes, flight schedules, maintenance. DEI is especially dangerous as some airlines are now using it as a basis for hiring/promoting pilots, in lieu of merit.
Funny you should mention “logic” in your reply to Steve. You don’t seem to possess even a rudimentary level of logical discernment. Everyone has had flight and schedule issues with AK Air. You denigrate us for holding on to faith yet you have faith in a lot of things unproven. Yeah I know, you place your faith in “science”. You still maintaining that six feet of separation mandate? Wearing a mask? Getting vaxed and boosted with a concoction which had little to no prior testing and research? Was that all “science” or a lie. Which one was it based on your faith in science?
You better reread the prior posts to your comment “FreedomAK.” ”
Lucinda posted on January 30, 2024 at 1:54 pm, “I feel your pain Steve but your conclusion is not logically supported by the evidence you present”
FreedomAK, perhaps I should reread YOUR post! Please accept my apology!
You would think that an airline would focus on delivering passengers to their scheduled destinations, rather than berating their staff and customers for political or religious views, but then, I thought companies were in the business of making money for their shareholders rather than virtue signalling leftist radicals.
Freedom AK. Steve argued that his inconveniences were caused by DEI, but offers no logical link. He has a theory, and it certainly may be true, but his conclusion isn’t supported. “You don’t seem to possess even a rudimentary level of logical discernment” . In a former life I taught philosophy and of course logic in a sorta well known university. You employ a worn out disproven notion that an atheist has faith in science. Science quote: If you are not a scientist and you disagree with scientists about science its not actually a disagreement. You’re just wrong. Science is not truth. Science is finding the truth. When science changes its opinion, it didn’t lie to you. It learned more.
Time for your nap Lu lu
Imagine professing in a court of law that your religion believes not discriminating against LGBT people is a danger to religion and women, lol. And because of that YOU believe LGBT people MUST be discriminated against. Good luck with that argument in the 9th Circuit. LGBT people being protected doesn’t cost religious people anything. equal rights aren’t pieces of pie. Everyone is supposed to get A WHOLE PIE to themselves. The equality act does exactly that. Gives the LGBT community the slice YOU already have in your pie.