AA had to live down some anti-gay discrimination a few years back (the "changing pillow covers incident" among others), so they have in general been pretty aggressive about reaching out and supporting the gay community, at least in terms of commercials, special programs etc. This story, if picked up, could undo all those efforts. That said, there have always been rumors of insitutional homophobia at AMR.

I have always found AA is particularly adept at making its customers feel like criminals, either implicitly or in this case explicitly. I always attributed it to the whole Texas school marm thing. They got a rule book, and they love to use it.

This article also just goes to show the risks of letting domestic (read: unsophisticated) carriers fly on international (read: sophisticated) routes. Could you imagine this scene happening on Air France? J'en doute vraiment mes amis.