Gay couple sue airline after dildo taped to top of their luggage and displayed on baggage carousel
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Wow what sort of sad people would do that to someone. Anyone who was involved should be fired and anyone directly responsible should be prosecuted for a hate crime, even though the visual of a dildo on a bag on a conveyor belt is funny the embarrassment and such to the men is not at all acceptable let alone the privacy laws they have broken to find the thing.
Based on what it says here, I don’t think there’s strong evidence they were targeted for being gay. I don’t think it’s unimaginable that an airport employee would do this to a female who packed a dildo in a bag, either as a joke or just negligence after searching luggage.
Embarassing as hell? Sure. Hate crime? With the best will in the world, that’s hard to claim.
Anyone who travels frequently knows that sometimes cases break, you could get asked to re-pack things in front of the public, etc. If you don’t want a possibility of having your dirty laundry (or worse) in front of random strangers, don’t pack it!
says there was a label with a male name, the bag was a males bag and the clothing was male
it’s a terrible thing to do to someone and does look very homophobic
It does not follow they did it because the person was male.
What more proof do you need. It was cruel act designed to humiliate. it was smeared in a foul smelling subatance as well. if it was a womans bag, men would laugh but not humiliate her.
I dont expect to have to pack my bags with conscious thought that a baggage handler might tape it open for everyone to view its contents. As for it being homophobic, I imagine baggage handlers must come across sex toys frequently for female passengers and you rarely hear of these incidents occurring, seems highly likely to be an act of homophobia.
So you don’t think they’ve humiliated women over sex toys before?
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/The-TSA-Hates-Your-Vibrator-How-to-safely-fly-2587389.php
“Five years ago, Koutsouradis was seated next to her husband at the Dallas airport when she was paged over the intercom. The baggage handlers had noticed that one of her checked suitcases was making a strange sound — it was vibrating. She met with Delta personnel on the tarmac (in view of many fellow passengers) and explained that the noise was from a vibrator in which she’d unwittingly left the batteries, a sex toy Renee and her husband had picked up during their vacation to Las Vegas. The airline personnel had Renee hold the vibrator up for everyone to see, as Delta employees laughed and made sexually harassing comments such as, “Doesn’t your husband satisfy you?” while passengers and employees watched. Renee brought suit against Delta for intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
I stand corrected, I guess there is no way to determine whether it was an act of homophobia. Either way, the handlers responsible deserve reprimanding.
Bags are often searched and easy targets for baggage handlers looking for items to steal- easy pickin’s.
Unfortunately, the US does not have the same hate crime laws for their LGBT citizens that we enjoy here in the UK and this would still not fall as a hate crime.
This is pretty shocking behaviour, perhaps the punishment for the baggage handlers should be having to go to work with a dildo taped to the top of Their heads!
Actually, it should be inserted in their rectum until they enjoy it! LMAO!
Awful!!! I hope they win millions from this case.
Continental Airlines are pretty awlful anyway ! This comes at no surprise . . . I’ve had some truely nasty and expensive experiences with them !
Of course it’s company policy never to, imply ownership in the event of a dildo. Always use the indefinite article a dildo, never your dildo.
You appear to know a lot about what airlines get up to and have not yet said that you think what has happened is bad.
Do you work for an airline by any chance?
frizzled is quoting Fight Club.
David, try watching Fight Club…
Oh its hardly a hate crime!!
so you would like your wife or girlfriends underwear taped to the top of her bag then??????
Why have you assumed I’m straight?!
Ok, fine… how about some rather…. provocative pictures of you ‘in action’ with your partner displayed prominently in a busy place???
How would they know it belonged to a gay guy? To say that the baggage handlers that engineered this prank are homophobic diminishes the very real and damaging incidents of homophobia that do occur.
The dildo was in with mens clothes on a bag with a mans name on, how many straight men would have a dildo with them.
its not a massive jump to know.
Quite a few straight people that I know use dildos as a couple…
I completely agree. It’s a tasteless and unwarranted ‘prank’ to induce embarrassment. But it’s certainly not a hate-crime. And yet you get over a dozen ‘thumbs down’ for suggesting it? Once again posters here on PN prove their nonsensical extremism.
People go on Pride marches with them tied to their belts, yet complain when somebody does this.
Difference being those people CHOOSE to tie them to their belts, they don’t tend to be attached without their consent.
You can’t excuse what the airline did because some gay people are exhibitionists.
Name & shame the people who did it so they’ll be sure not to get a job anywhere else.
Given how many homophobic people there are in Virginia, (I have a friend who lives there) they’d get a job easily.
Only a normal person would put the dildo back in the bag if it were already opened. Attaching it on the outside was done for one thing only, to embarrass and humiliate the owner of the luggage. Doesn’t matter if its male or female. One sick individual(s) for sure.
Being male and having a dildo in one’s luggage doesn’t necessarily mean the man is gay. Many straight men use dildos on girlfriends and wives. The sex shop industry is a thriving business for all orientations.
hah-not true-straight men do not carry dildos unless they want it inserted into themselves-nice try
haha Norman you don’t know much about sex do you? Women use them on their male partners a lot.
‘Straight’ men do have dildos for them selves too, and women do use them on the boyfriends and husbands.
I wonder if the asexuals have them too? Maybe for anatomy or decorations?
You’ll have to ask Stephen Fry that.
I don’t think it matters whether they thought the owner of the sex toy was gay or straight they should be held accountable for their hateful bullying actions.
It does when the usual suspects immediately jump on the case screaming “homophobic hate crime”…
Just because someone pulled a prank like this does not indicate that the owner was gay, and even if it was, who says the motive was homophobic? Just because somebody does this does not indicate a direct attack on the owners sexuality.
No but it was still bullying behaviour. Homophobic or not. Do you think that they should be able to get away with it if the motive is not homophobic? Aggression should never be tolerated. On the bandwagon? Seriously?
Doesn’t matter whether the owner was male or female, the fact that people would want to make such a show of someone else is just bullying. Hope they are named, shamed and fired.
I’d rather security were focused on looking for guns and weapons rather than adult toys!
Hilarious. Who travels with a dildo anyway?? Come on. Next time pack better. It wasn’t a homophobic ‘crime’…enough with the gay mafia already.
No where in the article does it state that this is being treated as a hate crime.
Regardless of whether you find it hilarious or not, it is clearly an invasion of this individual’s privacy.
It doesn’t matter who would travel with a dildo.
The bag was handed to the airline at one end in a certain condition, packed and sealed securely enough to be allowed on the aircraft in the first place. The bag was handed back to it’s owner in a condition other than that in which it was handed to the airline.
So, members of airport staff either deliberately opened the bag and looked through someone else’s property without their knowledge or permission, placing one particularly private item on the top for all to see. Or if the bag accidentally opened in handling or transit, the airport staff failed to reseal the bag in an appropriate and discreet manner and inform the owner.
Either way, the staff acted inappropriately, and appear to have thought it was a good idea to display another person’s dildo to the public without the owner’s permission.
Let’s see your reaction next time a baggage handler has opened your bag and gone through its contents. I am sure you won’t be finding it hilarious!
Does no one else think this is kind of funny?
It was bound to be awfully embarassing for those involved, but I must admit the story made me chuckle.
Not saying that those involved shouldn’t be disciplined either, it’s clearly not appropriate. But if I had of been there I’d have wet myself laughing if that bag had passed by me.
That’s exactly why what they did was that much worse. Because there are people who will laugh at their humiliation. People who will derive pleasure from their emotional duress. It’s embarrassing and shame on anyone who DID laugh.
ya but was it theirs? I admit it was a nasty trick and it is definitely and female oriented toy (check the color) we like em skin tone or black. But I bet the chick who it belonged to had a redder face. Take it from someone who sells these things this did not belong to them,
Are you even gay? Why does the color matter? I have a neon pink dildo.
The color of the dildo means absolutely nothing.
Wrong.
Working in a sex shop and being gay myself, I can tell you that is a false assessment.
I know gay guys with purple, pink, blue, black…the color doesn’t necessarily indicate the gender of the owner.
Well looking at the photo, it looks to me like the zip broke and the contents spilled and somebody just bundled the contents back in the bag and tied it up with Sellotape.
OK, they might have had a giggle by leaving the dildo on the top, but it wasn’t as if the bag had been intentionally opened.
The airline is still at fault, whether or not the photo is of the bag in question.
They left it for the owner to find his property in such a poor state, rather than making the effort of finding the owner and detailing the situation to him. And while in their care, the condition of the bag and it’s contents changed in an undesirable and embarassing manner, for which the airline should make an apology.
Oi, as if you’ve never travelled by plane and have never seen how those bags are handled by the airport staff. If they tried to personally contact each passenger whose bag was damaged, the airport would stall. :)
The airline has damn all to do with baggage handling. that is the responsibility of the airport.
It says clearly in the article that the zip has not broken. This is certainly a very mean practical joke. Whether it is homophobic or not is hard to prove.
That’s just an argument to get them to handle other people’s property better.
And it clearly shows in the photograph that the zip is buggered.
If the pic is of the item? then it looks like their zip on the bag has failed, and they’ve taped it together with their logo tape to try and secure it!!
Only concern is the foul smelling lubricant? what on earth does that mean?
From reading the article, it looks like PinkNews is displaying a photo nothing to do with the article, with out saying so! As that zip dont look like it working!
Assuming the picture in the article is one of how the bag looked coming down the carousel, the dildo isn’t taped to the bag. The zipper is broke, and the dildo is sticking out of the bag. I see no tape on the dildo. The bag looks pretty full
It looks to me like the worker tried to close the bag up, and the zipper busted because the bag is so full. He then tried to tape the bag shut (albeit half hearteartedly).
As a homosexual myself, I find it terrible this happened. However, seeing as they had to have known of the possibility their luggage would be searched. They ran the risk of this happening by packing it.
Then why choose THAT item as the one item that you leave “hanging out” on the luggage carusel in full view of everyone, in the knowledge that someone has to pick it up in full view of their fellow passengers.
I don’t buy this “it just happened to be there cause the zip bust” crap. At the least it’s highly unprofessional.
Cause it was funny.
Grow up.
Heck,
I’m going to pack ridiculous sex toys in all my bags from now on just on principal
Wow our very own Rosa Parks.
Disgusting behavior.
I doubt they will get any compensation but they deserve to take the airline to the cleaners.
What have the airline got to do with this?
This is outrageous! It’s even worse than when I found one of my dildos and a pair of mary Janes were stolen from my bag. I really liked those shoes too. I hope they take the airline for all they are worth.
How disgusting and unprofessional.
Remind me never to fly with this lot.
I don’t think the airlines have a say over the baggage handlers, they are employed by the airport, so unless the airline also own the airport…
Maybe the guys who did it were just idiots. Why the lawsuit?
Dildo on display does not equal emotional distress and with the lawsuit stating Because of the fact that the sex toy was contained in the bag of a male, and because the employee(s) responsible knew that the bag belonged to a male due to the name tag attached to the bag…’ is not grounds. Its pure folly and their case should be thrown out at the earliest convenience.
And no i wouldn’t mind my sex toys being displayed cause some baggage handler lost all sense of his responsibility. It doesn’t mean that if i found it outrageous that is grounds to sue.
Personally I would like to see the individuals responsible disciplined for their behaviour. As for United/Continental Airlines, they risk losing passengers and therefore money as a result of that prank.
I do not agree with the couple receiving millions of dollars in compensation although they shouldn’t go away empty-handed. This is because I feel that the compensation culture has gone too far and nowadays it is little more than a get-rich-quick scheme along with either winning the National Lottery or a talent contest.
A pathetic and childish prank carried by employees who obviously have too much time on their hands when they should be working. A company’s reputation can take years to build up but can be destroyed within minutes. Gay people and our allies should show our disapproval by flying with one of the many other airlines available.
Having said that I must stress the importance of securing your luggage when boarding an aircraft, especially if it is going in the hold. If your suitcase does not have a lock on it then who knows what could end up in it, this is especially important if you are travelling to far-eastern countries such as Thailand, Singapore or Indonesia where there is a risk that drugs may be planted on you and the penalties for drugs are severe.
If I had kinky women’s lingerie in my suitcase (I’m a straight, non-cross-dressing dude), and it for whatever reason ended up in the same display as the dildo, I could sue as well?
Yeah, it may be embarassing, but it’s not a “hate crime”.
the guys from the airline are idiots, but really you can’t live without your dildo for a few days?
Why would a couple need a dildo anyway? The bottom of the two should just find himself a better endowed partner.
Because this occurred inside an airport, what law does it come under? The country the airline’s from or am I way off the mark?
It happened in a US airport following a flight on a US airline so it’s all the same – it comes under US law presumably.
Yet they’re OK with the story being splashed all over the press?
I’m not condoning what happened but its fair to say its the typical nasty US culture of suing everyone for everything which is also negatively affecting our society.
Not sure of the staffing arrangements at the various airports but I’d be surprised if the baggage went through the hands of people from various organisations. Therefore, being unable to prove responsibility, the case is likely to be (rightly) thrown out.
That they are gay is utterly irrelevant – whoever did it had no idea the bag belonged to two men so it has no bearing on this story.
Not sure how the male name indicates the passenger was a homosexual. I think a female with a dildo is pretty sure to be a lesbian, i.e., homosexual.
I hope who ever did this is dealt with in the proper manner. This is appalling behaviour! They wouldn’t have done this to a straight couple. Saying that DID they know this belonged to a gay couple?
What ever is right…it is still appalling how ever you look at it!