Swati Runi Goyal Florida Satanist forced to remove ‘HAIL SATAN’ shirt on American Airlines flight cause she was being offensive.
Who knew words and images could be so offensive? But why should we care, especially when they’re just slabs of color and shapes emblazoned on a shirt?
According to a report, a self confessed Florida Satanist has told of being forced to change her shirt praising Beelzebub before being allowed to board a recent American Airlines flight.
Swati Runi Goyal, 49, was flying from Key West to Las Vegas the day before Halloween wearing a black shirt with the text ‘HAIL SATAN’ in all-caps, Buzzfeed News reported.
The shirt also included the text ‘Est. 666′ and an upside-down cross, a picture shows.
Meaningless? Or maybe not? Offensive? Hardly? Or maybe not?
Goyal told buzzfeed she was seated with her husband when an American Airlines crew member told her to remove the shirt or get off the plane — delaying the flight until she swapped into an extra shirt her husband was wearing.
Goyal told the news outlet that she is a member of the Satanic Temple and bought the shirt to support the non-theistic church.
‘I’m not goth. I don’t have piercings. I wasn’t wearing a shirt that had a goat being beheaded on it,’ Goyal told Buzzfeed. ‘[I was] wearing L.L.Bean hiking pants and vegan sneakers.’
Which raises the awkward question, what counts for proper flying etiquette? If most us can appreciate not flying nude, topless or barefoot or wearing clothing with slogans proclaiming hate or violence – aren’t we going a little too far to now ban religious or anti religious pop culture garb? Should we also now ban the sari, Jewish skull cap, burka on flights too?
According to American Airlines’ website passengers are required to avoid ‘offensive clothing’.
Define offensive? And doesn’t Goyal have the right as her own right to freedom of expression, to offend the general public if she so chooses to – assuming she doesn’t resort to violence?
Offered an American Airlines spokesperson: ‘We apologize to Ms. Goyal for her experience, and we are reaching out to her to understand what occurred.’
The company also said ‘Discrimination has no place at American Airlines’ in a tweeted response to Goyal’s own Twitter post about the ordeal.
Of course who was exactly offended and left reeling and traumatized and ‘discriminated’ against (maybe Jesus himself sitting up in first class?) by the passenger’s shirt remains unclear – especially to the passenger herself.
‘All Hail Satan … or something like that,’ Goyal’s Facebook page now reads.
Welcome to the twilight zone ….
