One half of a gay couple is suing Spirit Airlines Inc., alleging she and her wife were targeted for their sexual orientation and wrongfully pulled off a jet at Los Angeles International Airport in 2022 because a flight attendant thought a rash on the plaintiff’s neck could be caused by mpox.
Jacqueline Nguyen’s Los Angeles County Superior Court lawsuit alleges sexual orientation discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress and seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. She also seeks an injunction preventing Spirit “from requiring non-heterosexual patrons to prove they are not traveling with sexually transmitted diseases.” A Spirit representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Wednesday, Aug. 16.
According to Nguyen’s complaint, she and her wife boarded a Spirit flight bound from LAX to Dallas last Aug. 22 when an employee asked them to disembark, leaving the couple confused. Nguyen was later met by another airline worker who asked about the rash on the plaintiff’s face, according to the suit.
“Ms. Nguyen explained to them that it was just eczema and it was not contagious,” the suit states.
But the Spirit employees expressed concern that Nguyen could possibly be infected with the virus formerly known as monkeypox whose name was changed by the World Health Organization in November 2022, saying the term monkeypox could be construed as stigmatizing and racist despite a lack of evidence to support their speculation, the suit states.
“This assumption demonstrated that Spirit Airlines was stereotyping Ms. Nguyen as they seemed to believe that gay people are more vulnerable to carrying the disease,” the suit states. Nguyen felt shamed and embarrassed and cried, the suit states.
The Spirit Airlines employees confirmed a flight attendant had reported Nguyen’s rash and told the couple that they needed to understand they were being questioned because of health concerns at the time about the mpox virus, the suit states. Nguyen’s wife told the airline employees that their conduct was unlawful and discriminatory and that they had no right to remove passengers based on a suspicion one could have mpox, the suit states. The couple was allowed to reboard the jet after Nguyen showed the employees a cream she used to treat her eczema, the suit states.
“It was clear to everyone onboard that the rash was the reason why the plane was departing late,” according to the suit, which additionally states that Nguyen hid her face because she felt humiliated and shamed by her ordeal, the suit states.
When the flight landed, a flight attendant sat next to the couple and put $30 in one of Nguyen’s wife’s hands, telling both women to “go put gas in their tank or get dinner,” according to the suit.
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Trooper says
It’s more embarrassing that she flew Spirit Airlines.
That was nice of the flight attendant to make the gesture to give them money for dinner, I’m sure it came out of their own pocket. Unfortunately the attendant might get fired over that cause it’s like an admission of guilt.
Tom says
I don’t see anything wrong here. We just got over a deadly virus and the airline company was just protecting their passengers. Its not like they missed their flight. Just another person out for free money.
Lorena B says
First of all, lesbians are not a primary population impacted by Mpox. Secondly, if the airline attendant — or YOU — bothered to do any sort of low-level research, both of you would have known that.
The airline attendant was likely politically-motivated by their right-wing hatred of LGBTQ people to make the allegation that this woman had Mpox.
Being stupid and cruel can be costly, as Spirit Airlines is about to find out.
Templer says
How do you even make the assumption that it was because of social status, it was a rash on her face. Rash, hacking, coughing etc. it’s a confined space. This lawsuit is a money grab, it won’t see a courtroom.
Tim Scott says
This is the era of social media. There’s a very fair chance that the flight attendant is a RWNJ and that a cursory glance through social media will confirm a flaming bigotry on their part. At that point you will be right, the airline will settle.
Consider what it would be like if you had a company facing a discrimination lawsuit, and you employed Tweedledumb or Tweedledumber from our own little comments section. Whether you were really in violation or not, you would NEVER want it to be heard in court. You could never convince anyone that such flaming bigots were somehow maintaining a mask of professionalism during business hours.
Beec says
We love how we are always on your mind…
You could never run a business with customer satisfaction that we have from all walks of life in this valley, So this is just pure jealousy.
OwO!
Templer says
Bigotry is just an accusation, that airline employee is instructed and trained to do exactly what they did wether it’s Mpox or Measles, adult or child. Problem is when a person assumes one’s thoughts. Flight attendants have a lot of training to deal with todays issues.
Tim Scott says
Bigotry can be “just an accusation” all you want, but when it comes to discrimination lawsuits if you have an employee that “did exactly what they did” and an opposing lawyer can pull up their social media where they conduct themselves the way Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber do then you are going to lose and you would be better to settle.