You call that a response?!

[lance_sibley]

I got the following from American Airlines today, in response to the email I sent them the other day, referenced in this entry. Note the bolded section:

September 27, 2006

Dear Mr. Sibley:

We appreciate your inquiry about a recent article that appeared in The New Yorker about reported events on one of our flights. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to comment.

As the world's largest airline, American Airlines served more than 80 million customers last year from all over the world and we are well-known for welcoming all customers. Our company has a solid reputation for fairness and equality in the workplace and marketplace. A careful review of the records for the reported incident indicates that the actions taken by our crew members were reasonable, non-discriminatory, and struck the right balance in maintaining a safe, comfortable,
and respectful travel experience for all passengers onboard the aircraft. Being a leader in diversity is challenging given our large and diverse customer base, but our commitment to welcoming all customers remains unchanged. Consistent with our leadership position, we frequently review our policies, procedures, and training to determine whether enhancements can be made to prepare employees to address a variety of social situations in a professional and respectful manner.

Again, thank you for contacting us. We will continue to work hard to ensure all customers enjoy a pleasant journey when flying with American Airlines.

This is an "outgoing only" email address. If you 'reply' to this message by simply selecting the reply button, we will not receive your additional comments. Please assist us in providing you with a timely response to any feedback you have for us by always sending us your email messages via AA.com at http://www.aa.com/customerrelations.

Sincerely,

Lisa Fields
Customer Relations
American Airlines

"Reasonable, non-discriminatory, and struck the right balance"??? Maybe in FundieWorld, but not anywhere I want to be. This has cemented my decision not to fly American Airlines in future.

I guess it was silly of me to hope that they might, you know, actually acknowledge that what they did was wrong.

---

Looking back, I realize that I didn't post last Friday night after bowling. It was a fun evening - part of that being due to it having been h8torun's birthday the day before, and so Mario and Randy brought a cake (cake is always good :) ). Bowling-wise, it was my best night of the season so far, though I still would have liked to have done better. IIRC, I had 145, 170 and 153 (or thereabouts; I can't quite remember exactly what my third game score was), and so I managed to get my average up to 150. Since it should be around 165, I'm still not completely satisfied.

I was supposed to go out with cuteteenboy afterwards but he asked if we could reschedule for Sunday evening, so I was going to stay home, but ended up going downtown anyway. I was standing near the pool table when I noticed a young guy wearing a sleeveless t-shirt who had a tattoo on his shoulder of an Eye Of Horus, which is an ancient Egyptian symbol. I used to have an Eye Of Horus pendant (I think I still have it around here somewhere, though I haven't worn it in years), so I walked over and complimented him on the tattoo. He then showed me the cartouche he also had on his hand, so I showed him my ankh and scarab beetle charms that I wear on a gold chain. Naturally, I asked him if he was a Stargate fan. *grin* He said that the original movie is his favourite of all time - and then said, "I was so jealous this summer - my best friend got to meet Michael Shanks at a convention!" When I told him that I co-chaired that con, his eyes got big and he exclaimed, "No way!"

Naturally, it turned out that he had a boyfriend. (Or, as he said, "He's not my boyfriend, he's my lover." Yeah, whatever. Six of one.)

So I wandered off and sat down on one of the benches near the front of the bar. He and his boyfriend lover came over and sat on my left a few minutes later, and then a few minutes after that, the guy sitting on my right started talking to me. He was so drunk, though, that it took him about 5 seconds to get his name out (and it wasn't a complex one, either). Horus-dude told him to get lost... and then they said goodnight and left a few minutes later. Argh.

Fast-forward to Sunday... I went downtown to meet cuteteenboy at the place where he works on weekends and we decided to go to Toby's at Yonge/Bloor for dinner. I suggested that we walk up Church Street, since we were nearby and the scenery is nicer. ;) Usually, when I'm out with him, I'm used to noticing guys checking him out, but this time, I was the one who got cruised, by a guy standing outside the bar Play with two friends. Go me.

Naturally, though, a few minutes after we started on our way, the sky opened up. Fortunately I had my umbrella, and it was big enough for both of us, but I was still soaked from the knees down. Still, I enjoyed dinner, despite the fact that they were showing wrestling on the big-screen TV there. (Why???)

The last few days have been pretty dull. I'm noticing my attempts to reset my body clock are slipping a little - I had been getting up around 10:30 and going to bed around 2:30-3:00 for the last week or two, but I spent two hours yesterday afternoon monkeying around with converting a 30 page Word document listing LGBT-themed panel topics into a web page, and it put me behind my usual schedule. So I ended up not going to bed until 5:30 this morning and got up around 1. I have to nip that in the bud before it becomes a habit again.

I've had no news yet this week from the recruiter regarding their attempts to convince ADP that they're missing the boat on my application. Tomorrow, it will be a week since I last spoke with him, so I'll call then to see if they've had any success in changing the mind of the person at ADP who made that decision. I've gotten a couple of interesting emails and phone calls recently, but they're all about positions outside of Toronto. One was a six-month contract in Montreal, and another was a position in Japan. If I weren't enrolled in these night classes at George Brown College that start in a couple of weeks, I might have been tempted by the Montreal contract. The position in Japan appears to be a permanent position, but a) I don't have the technologies they're looking for, and b) I'm not keen on picking up and moving halfway around the world.

Comments

[crusherdisciple.livejournal.com]

Just gotta love those form e-mails. And if I'm correct, AA is based in Dallas.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. I remember flying through Dallas on the way to Ontario, CA in 1987 to visit relatives.

Are you offering to phone them to complain, or contact a Dallas newspaper? :)

[crusherdisciple.livejournal.com]

Prolly wouldn't do much good. I'm sure they get phone calls from crazy Hippies in Austin all the time. ;0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Austin_Weird

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

AA "the world's largest airline"... I wonder how they figure that. I think they will find that a few of the asian airlines are much larger.

Possibly. I have no idea if they're counting the number of planes in their fleet, the number of employees, the number of flights or the number of cities they fly to.

I still haven't got a responce so you are doing better than I.

They probably have a lot of emails to work through.

[eastman23.livejournal.com]

Keep this email, and if you ever fly on AA (which you won't, but keep this in mind anyways), and you see an opposite-sex couple kissing, complain to the flight staff saying you don't feel comfortable with that. After all, they want to provide "a safe, comfortable, and respectful travel experience for all passengers onboard the aircraft". ;)

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Excellent idea. :)

Though I still like the idea of staging a same-sex kiss-in. ;)

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

I guess it was silly of me to hope that they might, you know, actually acknowledge that what they did was wrong.

Yes, because their goal isn't making money, it's opening themselves up for a class-action lawsuit. Sorry, dude, they're really not going to publicly admit that they discriminated. The best you can ever hope for is them coming out (so to speak) in favor of diversity, and saying how dedicated they are to treating everyone fairly.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Well, there is the CYA aspect. I didn't look at it that way, because my first instinct isn't generally to sue someone. :) I guess the delay between my original email and this response (and that of the other people who have only just gotten responses) was because they had to consult with their lawyers.

The best you can ever hope for is them coming out (so to speak) in favor of diversity, and saying how dedicated they are to treating everyone fairly.

However, they've been claiming that for a few years already - they were even profiled in The Advocate a few years ago as an example of a company that was actually courting gay customers.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Well, there is the CYA aspect. I didn't look at it that way, because my first instinct isn't generally to sue someone. :)

Most people's isn't. But millions of people are reading about this, some of them will sue if they think they can win, and admitting wrongdoing can and will be used against them should it come to that.

However, they've been claiming that for a few years already - they were even profiled in The Advocate a few years ago as an example of a company that was actually courting gay customers.

Sure, but now that image is tarnished, so they have to build it up again.

[rockgoddes.livejournal.com]

I got the exact same email, word for word, and it about made me sick.

[mints4friends.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I'm surprised they even bothered to change our names in the greeting.

ARARRRRGGHHHHHH.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was probably computer-generated based on a lawyer-written template, doing a mail merge in Lotus Notes and guessing about what honourific to use (I wonder how many emails they got signed with unisex names, and how many they got wrong *grin*).

They're probably trying to make it look like they give a damn. I wonder how many letters they got.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I suspect their lawyers actually wrote it for them as an exercise in CYA.

[indydark.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the social aspect to this post. All-in-all, it's rather positive, even if "he" had a 'lover' and not a 'boyfriend'.

In regards to AA, since I don't read the local papers (Toronto Sun, either) and am not home to watch the early morning chat/news shows or the 6pm news, I may have missed if this little situation ever made it to the air. Did it?? If it didn't, how surprising is that?

Personally, I'm not flying this airline anymore either, not that I fly that much.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the social aspect to this post. All-in-all, it's rather positive, even if "he" had a 'lover' and not a 'boyfriend'.

Thanks. I wouldn't have minded if they had let the other guy talk to me for at least a few more minutes, though...

In regards to AA, since I don't read the local papers (Toronto Sun, either) and am not home to watch the early morning chat/news shows or the 6pm news, I may have missed if this little situation ever made it to the air. Did it?? If it didn't, how surprising is that?

I don't know - I didn't see it in the Globe and Mail. I read about it in a post by rockgoddes, and she had a link to the original article in the New Yorker (which I also cited in my post, here (http://boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com/174719.html), last week.

It'll probably be covered in an upcoming issue of The Advocate, though I let my subscription lapse this summer.

Personally, I'm not flying this airline anymore either, not that I fly that much.

Now, if we can just get enough other people we know to stop using them as well... I've been using Air Canada and Delta pretty exclusively over the past few years.

[jim-gamma.livejournal.com]

Yeah it was wrong, but frankly I can understand the reaction. You get so many people these days crying "Discrimination" at every opportunity that many people get fed up with it and refuse to listen if you accuse their co-workers of it, 'cause they think you're just trying to make a fast buck.

It's wrong and it's sad, but that's just the way it is. And no, I'm not sayin' anyone should shut up and accept it, I'm just sayin' that there are so many false claims of discrimination that it's impossible to sort them from the true claims these days. Hell, the Brit police have been banned from saying "Niggardly" and it has nothing to do with the word "Nigger"!

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

True, some people are too sensitive and read discrimination into everything. But I'd be willing to bet real money that an opposite-sex couple kissing in the same way this same-sex couple was would be left alone. (Remember, it's not as though they were making out or trying to join the Mile High Club.)

If I were ever going to fly AA again (which I'm not, at least not by choice), I'm going to be taking eastman23's advice above and complain that I'm uncomfortable if I see an opposite-sex couple kissing. Then we'll see which way the wind blows. ;)

[hoskie.livejournal.com]

I acknowledge the possibility that we're somehow misunderstanding the situation, but... I highly doubt it. Bah.

... so I showed him my ankh and scarab beetle charms that I wear on a gold chain.
I have a scarab ring that I, funnily enough, got from the ROM gift shop, but it doesn't quite fit my little finger as well as I would like. It's really freakin' cool though... :/

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I acknowledge the possibility that we're somehow misunderstanding the situation, but... I highly doubt it. Bah.

Admittedly, none of us was on that flight, but I have to assume that the New Yorker columnist had the facts correct (at least until I read otherwise).

I have a scarab ring that I, funnily enough, got from the ROM gift shop, but it doesn't quite fit my little finger as well as I would like. It's really freakin' cool though... :/

You'll have to show me when we're at the PSB concert. (Well, not at the concert... we'll be too busy dancing. And after the concert we might be trying to see if Neil or Chris would like to re-enact "The Night I Fell In Love". ;) )

[hoskie.livejournal.com]

And after the concert we might be trying to see if Neil or Chris would like to re-enact "The Night I Fell In Love". ;)
*lascivious grin*

wow...long post!

[frstythesnowman.livejournal.com]

1) AA: For a while there, I thought you were directly affected...ie there. We're all affected by this thing, just it would be so much worse (for me anyway) if I were the one doing it.

That said, the "heightened security" has been misused so many times in so many ways. I looked at Bruce Schneier's security blog/newsletter and followed a link. A university in the US has been looking into how many terrorist convinctions the US courts have made since 9/11. They also checked out what KINDs of things were labelled terrorist. Their success rate is dismally low, and the wide variety of things that somehow have been labelled terrorist is MIND BOGGLING. There sure are a lot of dumb people in the world.

Looks like these AA people are with those others ones.

I dunno. Since it is the US, maybe they should sue? Get a big cash settlement? Then they could make a job of it--getting offended and then suing on the basis of discrimination... Flippant, yes. But whimsical.

---

Go you! (For getting checked out/chatting that one up).

---

Body clock: Reset. Good idea. Being awake when everyone else is a good thing!

Re: Japanese position: do tell! (How did you find this one? Maybe I should look? Though my skill set is bound to be different from yours.)

What is an ADP?

Re: wow...long post!

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

AA: For a while there, I thought you were directly affected...ie there. We're all affected by this thing, just it would be so much worse (for me anyway) if I were the one doing it.

Ah. No, this relates to this (http://boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com/174719.html) post from last week.

That said, the "heightened security" has been misused so many times in so many ways.

Agreed. On the way back from Gallifrey last year, I had to go through secondary screening because I was getting off the plane in Toronto instead of going on to Tel Aviv. A couple who were also pulled out of line said they knew I would be getting screened because I "didn't look Jewish". (It was El Al.)

A university in the US has been looking into how many terrorist convinctions the US courts have made since 9/11. They also checked out what KINDs of things were labelled terrorist. Their success rate is dismally low, and the wide variety of things that somehow have been labelled terrorist is MIND BOGGLING. There sure are a lot of dumb people in the world.

Yes, and they all seem to be in positions of power. :(

I dunno. Since it is the US, maybe they should sue? Get a big cash settlement? Then they could make a job of it--getting offended and then suing on the basis of discrimination... Flippant, yes. But whimsical.

We'll have to keep our eyes and ears open to see if this comes up in the LGBT press. It wouldn't surprise me if they took some legal action.

Go you! (For getting checked out/chatting that one up).

Thanks!

Body clock: Reset. Good idea. Being awake when everyone else is a good thing!

Though it's not as though I can't do the things I do when everyone else is asleep... ;)

Re: Japanese position: do tell! (How did you find this one? Maybe I should look? Though my skill set is bound to be different from yours.)

I posted my resume on www.devbistro.com, and have gotten a few unsolicited emails from recruiters.

What is an ADP?

It's the brokerage that interviewed me twice a couple of weeks ago for a Senior P/A position.

bowling

[frstythesnowman.livejournal.com]

Good for you!!

I started with a bowling league this year... and my average has been going DOWN each time. My team is helping me.

Each time they help me, I do worse. Hopefully if I stay consistent to the new way I'll get better.

But 87 stinks. Really. 104 was ok. (I started with 135 average). And I can't recall the other score.

Kill me now. ;)

Re: bowling

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I started with a bowling league this year... and my average has been going DOWN each time. My team is helping me.

Well, there's your mistake. :P

Each time they help me, I do worse. Hopefully if I stay consistent to the new way I'll get better.

Yes, that would probably be best. You have to be comfortable to do well. Mimicking someone else's style doesn't usually work too well.

But 87 stinks. Really.

Yikes. Yeah.

104 was ok. (I started with 135 average). And I can't recall the other score.

Kill me now. ;)

You'll get better with more practice, I'm sure. (Do you own your own ball, or are you using house balls? It helps with consistency if you're using the same ball every time.)

The secret to doing well isn't in getting strikes, though they're always nice. :) You're not going to be bowling perfect games (I only know of one that's taken place in the six or seven years I've been bowling in my league). The trick is to be able to get as many spares as possible. So far this year, I'm averaging something like four or five open frames per game, which sucks (for me). I need to get that down to two.

[ashoemaker.livejournal.com]

I got the following from American Airlines today...

Yep, as someone else said, they probably feel if they admitted to doing something wrong they'd be opening themselves up for litigation. I know they do marketing specifically targeted at the gay market, and I found that Planet Out has ranked them as the #1 gay friendly airline:

http://www.planetout.com/travel/article.html?sernum=9642

"A perfect 100 percent in the HRC Equality Index, designation as official airline of GLAAD, PFLAG and the Human Rights Campaign, an impressive resume when it comes to supporting nonprofit organizations (including Chicago's Gay Games) and a dedicated LGBT microsite www.aavacations.com/rainbow)"

who had a tattoo on his shoulder of an Eye Of Horus...

The Eye of Horus is a very cool looking symbol -- I have a papyrus painting of it from when I visited Egypt years ago, and we initially used it as the basis of the company logo for a busiess I started around that time. Sorry to hear the connection wasn't enough to win you the boy that evening...