Last month a businessman from California, David Cooley, and his partner were asked to change sits so that a straight couple could sit together during a flight. This incident took place during an Alaska Airlines’ flight that went from New York City to Los Angeles. According to David Cooley, he and his partner were removed from the flight after a flight attendant approached them asking to give up their premium seats so that a straight couple could sit together. After he tried to explain that they were also together as an actual couple and wanted to sit together, the flight attendant gave them the choice of either giving up their seats or getting removed off the plane having no sensitivity towards David Cooley nor his partner.
A couple of days after this incident happened, David Cooley posted a status on his Facebook profile narrating his terrible experience. After a while, his post went viral and Alaska Airlines issued a public apology to him and his partner via Twitter. While stating that Alaska Airlines has a zero tolerance policy towards discrimination, the airline didn’t take full responsibility on the matter and labeled the matter as a “seating error compounded by a full flight”, not as a discrimination issue (Gizauskas, 2018).
Equality between individuals of the same society is one of the most concerned topics now a day. It is constantly demanded all be treated equally, however, there are many things that do not end up being accepted in society as it happens with LGBT communities. Homosexual discrimination is an issue that arose many years ago and was much more punished at the time. Over time, society has evolved and science has revealed that homosexuality is not a choice and is not something that can be transmitted from person to another as if it were a virus. For the same reason of the society’s evolution, nowadays it is more common for a person to express his or her homosexuality “freely” but It is important to mention that there are still people who hide it out of fear of rejection (Miller, 2018). Unfortunately, nowadays there is still discrimination against homosexuals because the society we live in has not finished accepting them and that in a certain way deprives them of certain rights in terms of equality and respect (Lewis, 2017). The ethical dilemma behind this analysis is whether gay couples should be treated equally as straight couples or not and whether the Airline did the right thing or not.
After analyzing the theory of cultural relativism, the idea of same-sex couples can very broad and complicated. In general, the world and the society in which we live is somewhat closed in terms of the acceptance of "new" ideas. The fact that people of the same sex join in marriage or be together is not well seen and unaccepted by many people, however, there is a lot of people who think otherwise. For example, many followers of the Catholic Church are totally against this idea because it is not what the bible dictates. It is not seen as something natural and their religion is opposed to it According to a short article found on the Internet, the Bible states that sexual relations are only supposed to happen between men and women, while same-sex relationships are forbidden by God. In addition, it also mentions that homophobia and LGBT discrimination should also prohibited because the right thing to do is to respect everyone no matter what (Worthern, M.G.F. 2017). It can be discussed that the airline did the right thing by giving priority to the straight couple based on a religious and catholic point of view. On the other hand, on June 27, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States of America formalized marriage between two people of the same sex nationwide. This new law established that is it considered unconstitutional for any state in the country to negate same-sex couples the right to be together (Erickson, 2015). Legally speaking, after purchasing that specific plane ticket Mr. Cooley had the right to sit next to his partner in their original sits and the airline shouldn’t have given priority to the straight couple. Based on the aforementioned, it can be analyzed from a cultural relativism point of view that there are different opinions regarding this idea, and it is morally or ethically correct depending on the parameters established by each of the different cultures.
By analyzing Rawl’s Veil of Ignorance, the flight attendant’s actions can be criticized as she impacted someone negatively by trying to do what she thought was “right”. If at the moment of taking the decision on whether making Mr. Cooley change his sit or not, the flight attendant was forced through the Rawl’s Veil of Ignorance to imagine that herself was in Mr. Cooley’s position then suddenly her actions may have no longer seen justifiable and she would have acted in a different way (Bjerk, 2016). This theory provides a system to make a fair decision by eliminating or at least minimizing all the personal biases and prejudices and placing yourself in an original position or behind the veil of ignorance, in which there is a lack of knowledge and everyone is is viewed equally (Ahmed, 2011). Even though she may have been trying to follow the airline’s policy by making sure the straight couple sat together during the flight, David Cooley stated that he also mentioned that him and his partner were also a couple making the flight attendant’s actions totally unjustifiable (Deabler, A. 2018).
By providing a service, Alaska airlines has a corporate social responsibility to protect their stakeholders’ interests. This means fulfilling their customer’s needs and making sure they provide the best service possible. A lot of businesses put this in practice in order to enhance society and the environment while also making a profit out of it (Caramela, 2018). A This type of activities is important for corporations because it generally helps the, to build a stronger link between stakeholders and corporation which at the end results in the benefit of both the company and its stakeholders. If the stakeholders such as customers and employees feel strongly attached to the business, the productivity and successful rate on the company will increase (Masoud, 2017). In this case, the flight attendant decided to give priority to a straight couple even when David Cooley and his partner had purchased premium seats. Despite the fact that the flight attendant was trying to fulfill the straight couple’s needs by sitting them together, her actions impaired Cooley and he ended up leaving the plane as he felt humiliated, which can be described as a lack of corporate social responsibility. The Airline stated that they value diversity inclusion ant that there is a zero tolerance for discrimination, nevertheless, the way in which they handled this whole situation was unprofessional. It is known that the airline issued a public apology to Mr. Cooley via Twitter but the truth is that they never took full responsibility of the problem and still justified the way in which the crew acted. In my opinion, the way in which the flight attendant acted is not justifiable. Downgrading a passenger from a premium seat to coach, just so that a couple could seat together seems unfair and biased.
In conclusion, homosexual discrimination and inequality is a very important issue nowadays. As members of this society it is our moral and ethical obligation to address this type of matters in order to truly progress and end with the problem. The fact that some heterosexual people feel uncomfortable when interacting with homosexuals is because they have influenced by negative opinions and stereotypes that our society still has. What happened to David Cooley and his partner on July of this year shouldn’t happen anymore. I personally think that LGBT people have the same right as any other heterosexual person should have. People shouldn’t be treated differently only because of their sexual orientation. Alaska Airlinesis a big corporation with a huge corporate social responsibility and should take matters into the issue so that a problem like this does not happen again. The flight attendant didn’t do the right thing by downgrading a gay couple so that a straight couple could sit together, it was unfair and unprofessional. With the use of ethical theories such as relativism, corporate social responsibility and Rawl’s Veil of Ignorance I support my arguments and opinion. I am a true believe that in order to achieve a healthy coexistence within a society, mutual respect, equality, and fairness between everyone is necessary.