Woman Claims Delta Airlines Lounge Staff Were Trapped Listening to Anti-LGBTQ+ Rhetoric Every Day. So She Takes a ‘Formal’ Step: ‘Horrendous’
Airport lounges are supposed to give travelers a quiet place to relax. But that can be difficult when every TV is playing the same thing, especially if the employees working there apparently can’t change it.
TikTok creator Alexis Rose (@travelingnurse) claims she ran into that problem on June 1, the first day of Pride Month. She had just flown from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., for work and stopped at the Delta Sky Club at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) for lunch.
Rose claims every TV in the lounge was tuned to Fox News, where she heard discussions about LGBTQ+ people that she found offensive. But instead of simply walking away from it, she asked a bartender if the channel could be changed. The answer she allegedly received made the situation much more concerning to her.
The Answer Wasn’t What She Expected
According to Rose, the Fox News discussion included claims that queer people were a “social contagion” and comments about same-sex marriage. She also recalled hearing something “to the tune of” transgenderism needing to be eradicated.
That language stood out for a reason. Fox News has faced criticism for the way it has covered LGBTQ+ issues, while calls to “eradicate” transgenderism have also drawn backlash after conservative commentator Michael Knowles used the term during a CPAC speech.
Rose, who identifies herself as a lesbian, claims the bartender had identified themselves to her as queer and trans. With the TVs playing nearby, she asked whether they could switch the channel.
“I wish I could. I’m not allowed to change the channel, uh, from Fox News,” the bartender allegedly told her.
Rose was particularly bothered by the idea that an LGBTQ+ employee could have little control over programming they had to hear while working. She took the bartender’s response to mean that someone above the lounge staff had decided the channel couldn’t be changed.
However, the video doesn’t establish who selected Fox News or why the bartender allegedly couldn’t change it. It also doesn’t confirm whether this was a Delta policy, a rule specific to that lounge, or a decision made by someone working there. Rose’s claim that employees were exposed to the programming every day is also based on her understanding of the encounter rather than information directly confirmed by Delta.
Rose decided to raise the issue directly with the airline instead of immediately taking it online. She claims she submitted a formal complaint on the same day and waited for Delta to address what she had witnessed. But by the time she posted about the experience, roughly six weeks had passed without a response, according to her account.
“I submitted a complaint to their formal, like, complaint line, and they never got back to me,” Rose explained. “So I am bringing it to the internet.”
Her video has received more than 29,000 views, and viewers had plenty of questions about what she described. Several were surprised by the alleged choice of programming, while others wondered why employees apparently had no control over what was playing around them during their shifts.
“They chose Fox News as their go to channel to be on in their lounge??” one commenter asked. Others focused on the workers. “Thanks for speaking up for the employees who can’t speak for themselves,” another wrote. A third suggested taking the issue higher up, writing, “Email the CEO Ed Bastian – he or someone from the executive customer service team will respond.”
Rose says the experience also made her reconsider her loyalty to Delta. Since she regularly travels to Washington, D.C., she plans to check the lounge again during future visits to see whether anything has changed.
“I will be checking and making sure that the DCA Delta Lounge employees are not being subjected to this bulls*** any longer,” she said. If the situation hasn’t changed, Rose promised to make another video. “This is horrendous,” she concluded.
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