Airline apologises to gay couple asked to move for straight couple

This story I just found is really hard to believe, especially in this day and age. The humiliation this couple would have felt would be incredible.

ALASKA AIRLINES B737-890 N516AS (CN 39044)        File Photo

Alaska Airlines apologised this week after a flight attendant asked a gay man to give up his seat next to his partner so a straight couple could sit together, an exchange that put the airline on the defensive as it rebutted claims of discrimination.
David Cooley, the owner of a gay bar in West Hollywood, California called the Abbey, wrote on Facebook that he and his partner had boarded a flight to Los Angeles from New York when a flight attendant asked if Cooley's partner would move from his seat "so a couple could sit together."

Cooley said he told the attendant that the two men were a couple and that he wanted to sit with his partner. But the attendant gave Cooley's partner a choice: Move for the other couple or get off the plane. "We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane," Cooley said. "I cannot believe that an airline in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask us to leave."

Through a spokesman, Cooley declined to comment further. But his posts about the exchange on Facebook and Twitter brought a wave of criticism, with many noting that the exchange was a stark example of the discrimination that LGBT people experience in travel and business.
Alaska Airlines said it reached out to Cooley on Twitter and issued a public apology saying the company would offer to refund his ticket and was "deeply sorry for the situation and did not intend to make Mr Cooley and his partner feel uncomfortable in any way."

But the airline said the encounter was not a case of discrimination, characterising what happened as a "seating error" and calling itself a "zero-tolerance company that does not support discrimination of any kind."


Photo mine - Story sourced from here
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/airline-apologises-to-gay-couple-asked-to-move-for-straight-couple-20180802-p4zuzi.html