A Texas woman traveling with her 16-month old son and mother claims she was kicked off her flight home on Wednesday after she accidentally misgendered a flight attendant.
Jenna Longoria, a women’s health and hormone expert from outside of Austin, was boarding her flight around 9 a.m. at San Francisco International Airport when she said she slipped up and addressed the United crew member by their wrong pronoun multiple times, she told The Post.
“When [the flight attendant], who identifies as a woman, gave me our boarding passes I said ‘thank you, sir.’ That is it. That is it,” Longoria, still confused over the incident, told The Post Wednesday night.
“She got upset. I walked to the plane to go down the aisle. Then she held my mother back and wouldn’t let her come with me [past the gate],” she said.
On board, she asked another male flight attendant for assistance, telling him that “he” — referring to the first flight attendant — had kept her mother, who had been helping her with her son, at the gate.
“He said ‘he?’ and I said, ‘yeah.’ He then said ‘she’s wearing a dress,’” Longoria said.
“My son is in my hand crying, I’m trying to get on the plane,” she recalled. “As a mother my prerogative is to get my son safely on the plane and not what the pronouns that someone goes by.”
She admitted on social media that she’s “not very versed with pronouns.”
Longoria, her son and mother were ultimately barred from getting on the plane, which departed with their luggage — and medications — still on board.
United told The Post in a statement that Longoria and her family were prohibited from boarding “following a discussion about having too many carry-on items” — which Longoria blasted as “an absolute lie.”
The mother documented the ordeal on her Instagram, where she posted a video of her speaking with a United official, whom she identified as Gabriella, who came to speak with them about the situation.
Gabriella told her that she had to get statements from witnesses to “fact find” but confirmed it was ultimately the captain’s call to have her kicked off which is “the end of the story,” the footage shows.
When Longoria pushed for further clarification, the United official explained she was being denied “for what came out of your mouth.”
“I need you to know that because of this verbal altercation that you had with my staff, you got yourself put off this craft,” she tells the family. “And it was confirmed by the captain. They heard it all.”
Longoria explains she still doesn’t understand what she said that would keep her from flying.
“I don’t wanna put words in their mouths because I still need statements, but some transgender comments were made, derogatory comments about being a bigot not being on the aircraft. This is what I heard,” the United official said.
“What?” she asks incredulously in the clip.
Longoria said Wednesday night she believes that if the captain was nearby and had heard what had actually happened she would have been allowed on the flight.
Longoria says Gabriella told her that they were likely going to be banned from flying on United as a result of the incident.
“I was in such shock. It was so traumatic,” she added.
United didn’t immediately respond to another request for comment about the possible future airline ban.
The situation was all handled calmly, Longoria said
“There was no yelling, there was no pushing or shoving – that’s why I’m so very surprised,” she said. “It all happened very quietly and don’t think anyone else [passengers] knew what was going on.”
Stuck at the airport without knowing if they could get on another United flight, Longoria and her mother decided to purchase tickets for an American Airlines flight back to Austin, which departed three hours later.
She’s received no apology or compensation for the American Airlines tickets, Longoria said.
