Man Kicked Off Southwest Flight Over ‘Broad City’ T-Shirt
A man was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for wearing a "Broady City" T-shirt that also depicted vulgar language.
New York student Daniel Podolsky was flying home after spending the week at Austin's South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, according to CBS DFW News. He successfully boarded his flight from Dallas to Chicago on Southwest Airlines, but when the flight was forced to stop in St. Louis due to weather issues, Podolsky and many other passengers exited the aircraft.
Podolski was dressed in a dark T-shirt with bold white lettering that he was given at the SXSW festival, promoting the Comedy Central sketch-comedy show "Broad City."
The shirt read "BROAD F****** CITY."
A man/hero was kicked off a plane for refusing to take off his "Broad Fucking City" shirt https://t.co/HvuEysxYvf pic.twitter.com/fvlrJH6YDf
— Ali Vingiano (@alivingiano) March 24, 2015
Prohibeixen volar un estudiant de Nova York per no voler ocultar la samarreta de 'Broad Fucking City'! #BroadCity pic.twitter.com/oMVYDk5NSk — Cristina Bordas (@CrisBordas) March 24, 2015
According to a local Fox affiliate in St. Louis, when Podolsky went to get back on the plane, the gate attendant allegedly stopped him over the language on his T-shirt. Podolsky cited his"'freedom of speech," but was told it was against Southwest's rules to wear an offensive shirt.
Podolsky refused to comply with the request to change shirts and was consequentially not allowed to re-board the aircraft.
"It's only when I got back on the plane when it was gonna take off, ya know, you have this much space, you're gonna take your jacket off because it's hot," he explained to Fox 2. "I took my jacket off, so he sent someone to remove me from the flight."
Podolsky took a video with his cell phone, which shows a Southwest employee giving him a number of options: changing his shirt, turning it inside-out, or to do "anything" not to display the language on the shirt.
Each time Podolsky answers "nope."
He was later allowed to board a flight home to New York after changing his shirt.
