Free Speech or Free Travel!

Snarfed from http://www.tshirthell.com/traveloffer.htm

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Recently a woman was kicked off of a Southwest Airlines flight in Reno after she refused to cover up a T-shirt some considered to be in poor taste. We believe her only crime was purchasing a t-shirt from somewhere other than tshirthell.com

At T-Shirt Hell we are dedicated to protecting the rights and civil liberties of our customers. One of these liberties is freedom of expression, and another equally important one is freedom of travel. Both of these rights are supposed to be protected by the Constitution. But we all know that recently the Constitution isn’t worth the parchment it was written on.

Therefore, T-Shirt Hell has decided to make the following offer: if any T-Shirt Hell customer is kicked off of any commercial airline flight simply for wearing one of our shirts, we will provide you with alternate transportation to get you to your original destination. This transportation includes, but is not limited to, the T-Shirt Hell corporate jet.

We will not allow our customers to be intimidated into wearing less interesting clothing, or forced to cover up our shirts. Or even worse, we don’t want our customers to have to remove their shirts and display their pale, flabby midsections and suffer the taunts of the other passengers. T-Shirt Hell customers are supposed to be subjecting the other passengers to ridicule, and not the other way around.

This is not a joke. But by no means should this be construed as a challenge or a contest. We are not trying to encourage anyone to actively or intentionally engage in an attempt to disrupt operations of a commercial flight. Doing that is dangerous, stupid, and against the law. If you get yourself kicked off for being drunk, abusive, belligerent, having poor personal hygiene, or any form of general disorderly conduct you are on your own. We are looking to protect your rights, so don’t abuse them. If you are reasonable, and courteous, and are refused passage solely for exercising your constitutionally protected right to wear your favorite t-shirt, we'll get you alternate transportation, and pick up the tab.

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I own 2 tshirts from that Fine esablishment (The "Talk Nerdy to Me" and the "Bert and Ernie are not gay, Trust me" shirt, the latter is on its way to me now), and I guess the question is, Should Airlines be ejecting paying passengers from their airlines for wareing t-shirts that they deem offensive, concidering that the owner of the tshirt bought it to exersize their free speech rights.

In my opinion, this infringing on peoples right to free speech and expression, and the way I see it, no laws were broken. :thumbd:

Also, I think that t-shirt hell's offer is really kewl, and if it ever happens to me, I'm taking them up on their offer.

Hell, the airlines have no right to kick someone off a plane for that sh*t, I mean, if they were gonna do it anyway, why the hell wait till they are ON the plane? Very pathetic. Also, whoever made the decision to eject that person, formed their own opinion, I say, if any other passengers complained, then that gives proper reason, but i mean, YOU'RE ON A PLANE, noones gonna be looking at someones bloody shirt the whole flight, so wtf.

That depends on whether or not airplanes are private property.
If yes, then they have the right to set any dress code they want.
If no, then her rights were infringed.

I believe they are however so, no, no laws were broken, on the part of the airline.

what exactly did the t-shirt say?... and happened to free speech....? its not that offensive if its on a tishirt.. if you dont like just dont look at it and get over it

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Originally Posted by Blackfire

what exactly did the t-shirt say?... and happened to free speech....? its not that offensive if its on a tishirt.. if you dont like just dont look at it and get over it

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Some of T-shirt hells shirts are pretty bad, like these ones: "Bring our Soldiers home, our hookers are starving" , "I looted new orleans and all I got was 30 of these lousy tshirts" , "I (image of Plane) NY", and my personal favorite for babies: "They Shake me"

And belive me, there are some REALLY BAD ones on that site. some that even offend me, and I'm not easily offended.

Does that answer your question

yea.. i've seen them.. and they're not rele the type of thing people should even say in a public place.. but,, if you want to degrade yourself.. and support that.. go ahead,,... airline fashion cops

Would be nice to know what t-shirt she wore. Some of those t-shirts are kind of racist or just plain discusting, but damn funny.

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Originally Posted by Blackfire

yea.. i've seen them.. and they're not rele the type of thing people should even say in a public place.. but,, if you want to degrade yourself.. and support that.. go ahead,,... airline fashion cops

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There are some things that people sometimes don't get about Free speech.

I don't know how it is in the states, with the Patriot act and all, But in Canada, every citizen has the right to free speech, to say ANYTHING they want as long as it does not PROMOTE hatred or violence, or commiting a crime.

To use an example: someone could say "In my opinion, Anime Fans are not human, and I hate them"

Remove anime fans with any Race/Creed/Relegion ect, and that would be perfectly legal.

However, it would be illegal to say somthing like: "Anime fans are not human, and you should hate them"

Why is that illegal? First off, you're not stating your personal opinion, which is your right, you are making a generalization, and second, you are promoting hatred.

Thats why you see Nazi themed art or websites out there. They are perfectly lega, as long as they don't promote hate, violence, committing a crime. Although, there are exceptions to the website rule though, and that is websites are bound by the law of the country that the website is hosted in. Thats why there are warez sites that are still running because they are hosted in a country where it is legal to do so.

That might explain why people get uptight when something like this happens.

Become informed, research what your free speech laws are in your country. Know what your rights are.