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A Catholic former flight attendant for United Airlines who was fired after sharing his views on Church teaching on marriage and sexuality will be allowed to proceed with his lawsuit against the airline and his union, a judge ruled June 30.
Travel news outlet PYOK reported that Ruben Sanchez had worked for United for nearly 28 years when the airline fired him in January 2024, citing issues with social media posts he had shared or liked on his personal account that dealt with marriage and sexual orientation. The airline had reportedly scoured his social media activity after a passenger on a May 2023 redeye flight from Los Angeles to Cleveland filed an anonymous complaint, alleging they overheard Sanchez making homophobic and transphobic comments during a conversation with a coworker.
According to PYOK, Sanchez, a gay man who lives by Church teaching on sexuality, said that he had a private discussion with his colleague in the galley of the plane about Catholic theology, marriage, and the immutability of biological sex. The conversation was in light of the upcoming “Pride” month, he added.
After United received the complaint about the conversation, the airline examined 140,000 X posts Sanchez had created, liked, or commented on. PYOK reported that United dismissed the passenger’s claim but continued to monitor Sanchez’s social media history, eventually pointing to 35 specific posts that the airline said demonstrated a lack of professionalism and respect, arguing that those provided enough grounds for termination.
“Sanchez admits that he reposted and liked posts that are critical of linking the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual movement with the Transgender movement,” PYOK reported. “Sanchez maintains that it is his political opinion that the ‘transgender movement is distinct and does not further the ‘LGB’ movement.’”
PYOK noted that 35 posts comprised just 0.02% of Sanchez’s entire history on X.
Sanchez sought aid from his union, the Association of Flight Attendants-Communications Workers of America, but they refused to defend him. The Texan reported that the union originally agreed to represent him, but then “abruptly dropped” the case during the arbitration stage. According to The Texan, Sanchez claimed that the union did not help him because “I’m Catholic, conservative, old and expressing myself as such on [X].”
The outlet additionally reported that the union attempted to have Sanchez’s lawsuit, which he filed in January, dismissed. The union had argued that Sanchez did not show enough evidence that it was required to represent him or that it had discriminated against him on the basis of age and religion.
However, Christina Snyder, a California federal district judge, ruled against the union’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, finding that the union had failed in its duty to represent him and that he had provided sufficient evidence for his claim that it had discriminated against him.
Sanchez posted on X July 3, “With Judge Snyder’s decision in my favor, I can begin the path to justice for myself and all employees of faith who’ve been discriminated against for being Christian, conservative, old and expressing themselves as such.”
