A Critical Vowel

Earlier this week, a woman on a Southwest flight from Los Angeles to Portland (with a stop in Reno) was asked to leave the aircraft after she refused to cover up her shirt with an obscene word on it. The shirt pictured three of our nation's leaders with the phrase "Meet the F***ers" underneath it. She claims it's styled after the movie, Meet the Fockers, just with one critical vowel changed. I don't really care what movie it's patterned after, or really which politicians she wants to slam. We live in America, and she has the right to a political opinion. What she does not have the right to do is wear a shirt with obscene language on it in public. Even in the news story, they blur the letters. Southwest has received a lot of feedback about this issue, and has issued an official statement about our decision:

Southwest Airlines supports the right of freedom of speech in the United States. Southwest also supports the rights of our Customers when traveling on Southwest and our Employees to not have to be confronted with offensive, even inciting profanity displayed by another Customer onboard a Southwest flight.

Southwest's Customer Contract of Carriage states that: "Persons whose conduct is or has been known to be disorderly, abusive, offensive, threatening, intimidating, or violent, or whose clothing is lewd, obscene, or patently offensive" may be denied boarding.

This situation does not concern politics or political views. Rather, the Customer wore a t-shirt displaying language that is so offensive that for example, by federal regulation it cannot be aired by public broadcast or printed in a newspaper.

At Southwest, our mission is to provide excellent Customer service to those who choose to fly with us. This means providing a safe, unoffensive environment for our Customers. Maybe you agree, maybe you have another opinion on this topic. Either way, I'd love to hear it!