Mother with Young Child Ejected from Plane after Accidentally ‘Misgendering’ Trans Airline Employee

The crew of a United Airlines flight on Wednesday ejected a Texas mom scrambling to get her young child and elderly mother settled on the plane after she accidentally addressed a transgender-identifying employee with male pronouns.

Jenna Longoria, a nutrition practitioner and women’s health coach, asked the gate agent at San Francisco International Airport whether she could pre-board her flight, given that she was traveling with her 16-month-old son.

The man at the counter, whom she later learned identifies as transgender, informed her that airline policy prohibited her from bringing her son’s car seat on board, “which I knew to be untrue,” she told National Review.

After waiting for a while, Longoria pleaded again with the gate agent to let her party pre-board. The transgender employee rolled his eyes, Longoria said, and handed her a boarding pass. She replied, “thank you, sir,” which upset him.

While Longoria was allowed to board with her child, her 73-year-old mother was held back, she said. Struggling to break down her baby stroller and arrange the car seat to get her crying son situated, Longoria asked a different flight attendant for help, noting that the staff member at the front refused to let her mother pre-board with her.

“He asked who and I said, ‘the man at the front,'” Longoria recounted. “He told me they were a woman. I said, ‘I’m sorry, [I’m] not well versed in pronouns. He said, ‘well she’s wearing a dress.'”

After Longoria again asked the flight attendant for help, he told her to get off the plane, informing her that she was being barred from the flight due to her alleged bigotry, she said. The operations manager told her she may be banned from all future United flights because she made an inflammatory comment about the flight attendant’s gender, she said.

“It’s so confusing these days to keep up with everyone’s pronouns and sometimes you can’t tell by outward appearance what they are identifying as,” she said. “I was not trying to harm anyone.”

Asked for comment, United denied Longoria’s expulsion had anything to do with so-called misgendering an employee.

“A party of three traveling out of San Francisco today was not allowed to board following a discussion about having too many carry-on items,” a spokesperson told National Review. “The matter was resolved and the customers took a later United flight to finish their trip.”

A video Longoria posted to Instagram appeared to corroborate her claim that the staff kicked her off due to supposedly inappropriate language.

In the video, Longoria speaks to a United official, whom she identified as Gabriella, who told her she had to get statements from witnesses to “fact find.” Gabriella said it was the captain’s decision to get her removed.

When Longoria pressed for an explanation, Gabriella responded that  she was being ejected “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 said. “And it was confirmed by the captain. They heard it all.”

Longoria asked again what specific conduct or words warranted this action.

“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 employee said.

After being escorted off the flight, Longoria implored staff to let her family get their luggage off the plane because they needed medication that was stowed away, but United refused, she said. After waiting in the airport for three hours, Longoria booked new flights with American Airlines for $1,000.

Longoria posted her experience on X, after which United contacted her and placed her party on a later flight to Austin.

United declined to answer whether it would compensate Longoria for the $1,000 she spent on American Airlines tickets after she was allegedly told she could be blacklisted from future United flights.