A Delta Airlines employee went viral over the Christmas holiday for standing up to a transgender activist who was causing a scene for allegedly having been "misgendered."
The video shows transgender actor Tommy Dorfman — a biological man who identifies as a woman — confront Delta Airlines gate agents at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Saturday. The video doesn't show what happened prior to the confrontation, but the Delta employees are clearly upset that they can't help other customers because Dorfman is causing a scene.
Dorfman's grievance was that the employees "intentionally" misgendered him by not using female pronouns to refer to him, a charge one of the employees denied.
"It wasn't intentional, but if you want to take it personally, that's also OK," the Delta employee said.
"Well, she did do it intentionally, twice," Dorfman argued, referring to another gate agent.
"I did not do it intentionally," that female gate agent responded.
When Dorfman reiterated his accusation, the primary gate agent stood his ground.
"You're being condescending, and if you want to continue, I'll have Port Authority escort you out of the building if you want to play that game with me," the Delta employee said. "Would you like to continue three days before Christmas? I really don't mind."
"I'm good," Dorfman conceded.
— (@)
The video was originally uploaded to Dorfman's TikTok account. The video has since been taken down. In his description of the incident, Dorfman accused the Delta employee of a "human rights violation."
He said, according to the Washington Examiner:
When you try to advocate for yourself at @delta and are met with even more transphobia and threats of being arrested at LaGuardia. Tristan, the employee, said he was fine with me posting this. Didn't realize it was condescending to flag a human rights violation after another employee misgendered me incessantly.
Dorfman, moreover, confirmed that Port Authority was dispatched over the incident.
"The man actually called port authority. Two police officers actually showed up ~10 min later and spoke to me and my partner about the incident," Dorfman wrote on TikTok, according to the Washington Examiner.
Delta Airlines, meanwhile, is not saying much.
"We're aware of the video and looking into the matter, including reaching out to our customer to understand more about what occurred," the company said.
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A Delta Airlines passenger recorded video of an airline official kicking him off his flight and threatening him with being placed on the airline's no-fly list if he didn't comply.
Why? Because he was wearing a "F*** Biden" hoodie. And the Delta official also pointed out that he wasn't wearing a mask — but the hoodie took center stage in videos the passenger posted to TikTok.
In the first clip from @Jauneil51603 — he identifies himself as Jauneil Brooks in a subsequent clip — the airline official tells him she spoke to "corporate security" and that if he doesn't leave the plane with his "F*** Biden" hoodie turned inside out, she would have to deplane all the passengers. She adds that the decision is based on Delta "policy" and that "you cannot wear it."
The airline official adds to Brooks that he also would be placed on the "no-fly list" if he doesn't comply.
He then tells the Delta official that he needs to see the policy for himself, and she replies that they could look at the policy on a computer in the jetway. He then argues that he has the right to express himself under the First Amendment.
It isn't clear on what date the interaction took place, but Brooks posted the first clip on Wednesday.
Content warning: Profanity on hoodie visible in video:
Man was kicked off @Delta flight for wearing a shirt that\u2019s against Biden. They even threatened to put him on the no fly list.pic.twitter.com/6Dy3Sti8PH— \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8Travis\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8Travis\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1646859285
In a second video, Brooks is standing in what appears to be the front of the plane, and he takes off his "F*** Biden" hoodie.
"You guys force me to wear my mask, I don't wanna wear it; I can't wear my hoodie. It's off," he says in the second clip. "I'm gonna go sit down. ... Whatever you guys ... say to me ... will be recorded, and you guys can get sued."
In a third video, Brooks is sitting in his seat again without his "F*** Biden" hoodie visible, but the Delta official tells him the captain wants him off the plane anyway — this time she says it's because he hadn't been wearing his mask.
"This is what's wrong with our country," Brooks says as he departs the plane.
@jauneil51603 I took off the hoodie and still got kicked off #delta #thepeoplesconvoy #wethepeople ♬ original sound - Jauneil51603
In a fourth video, Brooks walks through the jetway with his "F*** Biden" hoodie back on and speaks to the airline official who kicked him off the flight. He asks for his luggage under the plane, and he's told it would end up in Los Angeles, which is his final destination. He asks for the airline official's name and badge number, but she only tells him her first name.
Content warning: Profanity on hoodie visible in video:
@jauneil51603 Kicked off of #delta ♬ original sound - Jauneil51603
In a fifth clip, a different airline official speaks to Brooks by an airport gate. She tells Brooks he was wearing an "obscene shirt" and that he "refused to remove it" and that he wasn't "being compliant with your mask."
Brooks argues that he did take off his hoodie and put on his mask and that proof is on video. The airline official is unsympathetic and simply tells Brooks that Delta has canceled his ticket and that he'd be refunded.
Content warning: Profanity on hoodie visible in video:
@jauneil51603 Because they didn’t like my hoodie they kicked me off the plane . #wethepeople #trump2024 #FJB #LGB #delta #deltairlines ♬ original sound - Jauneil51603
Delta Airlines on Thursday offered the following statement to TheBlaze: “Delta has long prohibited customers from displaying profane or derogatory words or images, and our expectation is for customers and our people to treat each other with dignity and respect, always. Nothing is more important than a safe, civil travel experience for all. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience caused by the briefly delayed departure.”
While Libs of TikTok indicated it had chatted with a Delta rep who said passengers can wear whatever they want, Delta's "Contract of Carriage" for U.S. Travel; "Rule 7: Refusal to Transport"; "E) Passenger’s Conduct or Condition" states that "Delta may refuse to transport or may remove passengers from its aircraft ... When the passenger’s conduct, attire, hygiene or odor creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers."
Delta, like numerous airlines, has been in the news quite a bit over the last few years with regard to difficulties between flight crews and passengers:
Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian took a stand against COVID-19 vaccine mandates this week, saying his decision not to impose a mandate on his employees is the reason most of Delta's employees are vaccinated.
Speaking on Fox Business, Bastian said Delta has accomplished a vaccination rate of more than 90% without "the divisiveness of a mandate."
"The reason the mandate was put in by president, I believe, was because they wanted to make sure companies had a plan to get their employees vaccinated," Bastian said. "A month before the president came out with the mandate, we had already announced our plan to get all of our people vaccinated. And the good news is the plan is working."
"By the time we're done, we'll be pretty close to fully vaccinated as a company without going through all the divisiveness of a mandate," Bastian explained.
"We're proving that you can work collaboratively with your people, trusting your people to make the right decisions, respecting their decisions and not forcing them over the loss of their jobs," he added.
In August, Delta Airlines announced, not a vaccine mandate, but a health insurance surcharge for unvaccinated employees.
Beginning Nov. 1, unvaccinated employees enrolled in Delta's account-based healthcare plan will be subject to a $200 monthly surcharge. The average hospital stay for COVID-19 has cost Delta $50,000 per person. This surcharge will be necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company. In recent weeks since the rise of the B.1.617.2 variant, all Delta employees who have been hospitalized with COVID were not fully vaccinated.
Bastian told Fox Business he expects Delta's vaccination rate to rise another 5% in the next month. Combined with religious and medical exemptions, nearly all of Delta's staff will then be vaccinated — all without a mandate.
Biden issued a COVID-19 vaccine mandate last month for all federal contractors. The mandate impacts several major airlines, including Delta Airlines, because they contract business with the federal government. Biden's mandate gives contractors until Dec. 8 to comply.
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly condemned Biden's vaccine mandate this week, saying he disagrees with such policies, but said he is enforcing one on Southwest employees only because of Biden's mandate.
I've never been in favor of corporations imposing that kind of a mandate. I'm not in favor of that. Never have been," Kelly said on CNBC. "But the executive order from President Biden mandates that all federal employees and then all federal contractors, which covers all the major airlines, have to have a [vaccine] mandate ... in place by Dec. 8, so we're working through that."
United Airlines announced that all new employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 starting this month, CBS News reported.
"As we welcome new employees to the company, it's important we instill in them United's strong commitment to safety," the airline stated in a memo to employees, CBS News added. "Effective for all job offers made after June 15, 2021, we will require any external candidates for U.S.-based jobs to attest that they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by their start date."
All new United employees will be required to upload their vaccination cards into the airline's system within seven days of joining the company, the network reported.
Delta Air Lines mandated the same policy for new employees in April, CBS News noted, and called the vaccine shots "safe, effective and essential to the future of the airline and our world."
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby in January hinted that his company likely would join others if they began requiring employee vaccinations and said that was the "right thing to do" for United and other corporations, the network said.
"We need some others to show leadership, particularly in the health care industry," Kirby said during an employee town hall, CBS News reported. "So, if others go along and are willing to start to mandate vaccines, you should probably expect United to be amongst the first wave of companies that do it."
The network added, however, that other U.S. airlines said they would not require their workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
"We are strongly encouraging team members to get vaccinated and offering an incentive for those who do," an American Airlines spokesperson stated in an email, CBS News said. "But we do not plan to require the vaccine unless it's mandatory for entry into certain destinations."
Late last month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said businesses can mandate that employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter their workplaces and offer incentives for receiving the vaccine.
A recent poll of 1,339 employers indicated that 60% of them will require proof of vaccination from employees, ABC News said, but surprisingly left-wing social media powerhouse Facebook is not among those that will enact such a mandate.
“This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century,” President Joe Biden said in 2021. “These blatantly unconstitutional efforts … are nothing less than Jim Crow 2.0,” failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said. “This is Jim Crow 2.0,” South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn said. That’s how Democrats described Georgia’s Election Integrity Act of 2021, which expanded […]
Starting in 2020, airlines did two insanely stupid things: They forced a generation of their most experienced pilots into early retirement, then committed to new race-based hiring rules.
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