A same-sex couple with three children has accused Southwest Airlines of discrimination after they were not allowed to board their flight as a family.
Grant Morse and Sam Ballachino, their 5-year-old daughter, 3-year-old twin sons and Ballachino’s 83-year-old mother waited in the family boarding area at the airport in Buffalo, New York on Saturday when they say they were approached by a gate agent and told they couldn’t board because it was "only for family boarding," USA Today reported.
After explaining that they were a family and were married, the agent still would not let them board together. After consulting a supervisor, only one parent was allowed to board with the children; the other parent and grandmother had to board separately, USA Today reported.
"I’m a father and he’s a father. It is impossible for one person to push three strollers and handle twin boys at 3 and a girl at 5," Morse later told USA Today. The family had to wait and board the plane last, and couldn’t sit together because there were only four seats saved for them, Morse said.
"At that moment I realized my 5-year-old daughter and my twin boys of three years old had experienced discrimination for the first time," Morse told Fox 4. "That hurts."
Morse filed a complaint against Southwest. The airline said in an emailed statement that they were only preventing the grandmother from boarding with the family and that they weren’t discriminating against the same-sex couple. They even praised the staff for trying to save seats together for the family, USA Today reported.
Morse said the airline was trying to "cover their rear for discrimination" and that it was "infuriating me more." He told Fox 4 he wanted the gate agent to be fired.
Twitter users seemed to take the family’s side against Southwest.