Photo: American Airlines/Facebook
American Airlines has announced that it has filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of marriage equality. As Bloomberg explains, the Supreme Court allows friend of the court briefs to be filed so that interested parties can share their views on pending legislation; this brief argues that states that prohibit gay marriage “hamper employer efforts to recruit and retain the most talented workforce possible in those states.” The Supreme Court will (finally) hear arguments in favor of marriage equality in April and is expected to rule on the issue by June.
Twitter/@AmericanAir
American is the latest addition to a list of over three hundred companies that have signed the brief, a list that includes corporate giants like Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Nike, as well as a number of airline carriers; Alaska Airlines, Delta, Horizon, JetBlue and United Airlines have signed on too. And although they’re signing the brief just before the March 6 deadline, American has been a longtime supporter of LGBT rights. As TravelPulse notes, American was the first major airline to offer same-sex domestic-partner benefits and offers benefits to the partners of its LGBT-employees. It claims to be the “first and only airline” to earn a perfect rating from the Human Rights Campaign for LGBT equality in the workplace, but that may only be half right: United has received three straight perfect scores of 100% from the organization as well.
Photo: Southwest.com
American isn’t alone when it comes to support for LGBT causes. Southwest is the official airline of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the Gay-Straight Alliance Network (GSA) and a number of other advocacy organizations. Delta was the the co-presenter of the annual GLAAD Media Awards (Southwest was a corporate partner), and United was a gold sponsor and the official airline of last summer’s Gay Games in Cleveland.
And although many of the major airlines offer travel suggestions for their LGBT passengers, listing dates of Pride Festivals and other annual events, Alaska Airlines goes one step further. The Seattle-based carrier offers discounts of 7-10% on travel to Pride, Elevation and other events. According to their website:
“To show our continued support [for marriage equality], we are encouraging the LGBT community to travel, not only to Seattle, but to Pride events and gay friendly destinations around the country.”
As American Airlines tweeted, this kind of support is “the right thing to do.” It’s not often that airlines collect press for getting things right, but this time, they did. And the major carriers have shown that their commitment to the LGBT community goes way beyond 140 characters.