Hmmm . . . something doesn't smell right. Nobody wants to yank anyone off an airplane for no reason and police need probable cause to do that. And airlines lose money when they have to reschedule the passenger. But I would not be surprised if Ms Smith in fact was a perpetual victim who somehow always seems to experience many more incidents like this than anyone else does.
"She said she had two beers and a shot during the three hours", but that may be an understatement on her part to deflect attention from the real reason she was pulled from the airplane. We all know that the usual answer to a cop's question "Have you been drinking?" is almost ALWAYS "Just a couple of beers, Ossifer!"
That she was pulled for flying while transgender is suspect. After all, she made the trip TO Dallas as a transwoman, right?
"but some passengers were drinking more than she was" is immaterial. This incident was most likely based on behavior, as implied in the comment "Smith said she wasn't given a breathalyzer or any other test for drunkenness". I suspect she was acting up and the airline staff took action.
"I did believe I was being singled out," she said. Well, maybe, and since we only have one side of the story as reported by the Dallas Voice we simply do not have a complete picture.
Maybe she's right! Maybe she really was singled out for her trans status. And if so she should pursue a complaint. But if she really was the bad actor in this scenario she won't, and what do you want to bet her hesitance to complain will be blamed on her believe in the "likelihood" that she'll suffer further discrimination and no meaningful action will be taken.
If she was wronged then justice MUST be sought! And I'm not defending The Man, and it pains me to sound so cynical but I've seen this same nonsense play out too many times for me to take this at face value.
I have a problem with us (the trans community) designating every issue as discrimination. There are way too many instances of actual discrimination that we must aggressively fight, and we harm our own cause when we cry wolf and blame others for our own bad behavior. We divert much-needed public attention away from real discrimination in order to give drunken air passengers undue attention while real victims suffer.
