(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Jae’lynn Cheney, a pro-obesity activist on TikTok, took to the platform to complain about an airline ignoring her request for wheelchair service, forcing her to walk the jet bridge, according to the Post Millennial.
@jaebaeofficial Wasn’t sure when I’d share this, but staying silent isn’t an option anymore. If you’ve faced something similar, you’re not alone. Discrimination is real, and I don’t want anyBODY else to ever experience something like this. I don’t plan on stopping the fight for change in the travel industry and beyond. EveryBODY deserves respect and dignity, regardless of size, ability, or any other factor. Let’s stand together to ensure equality for all. • • • #BodyEqualityInTravel #TravelForAll #AccessForAll #PlusSize #PlusSizeTravel #FlyingWhileFat #TravelingWhileFat #FlyingWhilePlusSize #PlusSizeTravelPetition ♬ Sad song by piano and violin(886018) – NOVA
Cheney claimed that as she was preparing to exit the plane at Seattle Tacoma International Airport, the employee assigned to push her to the terminal simply walked away, taking the chair with her.
“I was then forced to walk up one of the longest jet bridges I’ve encountered, and she didn’t stop,” the activist told her more than 136,000 TikTok followers in the video.
“By the time she let me reach the wheelchair and sit down my lips were white, my oxygen levels had dropped, and I almost fainted,” Cheney continued. “This was my first time flying without oxygen.”
She expressed shock that the employee refused to expend mass amounts of effort pushing her to the terminal.
“This woman just assumed I could walk and would rather me do that instead of her having to push someone my size up the jet bridge,” she said. “All the other attendants wheeled their passengers up the jet bridge by my needs were disregarded.”
She capped off the video by accusing the airport of discrimination, and encouraged her followers to sign her petition.
The petition, which has nearly 40,000 signatures, demands that the Federal Aviation Administration mandate airlines cater to the demands of obese customers via larger seats, reimbursements for purchase of additional seats and comprehensive employee sensitivity training.
Such requirements, of course, would result in the already embattled airlines passing the additional costs onto their other customers, even as heftier freight already adds additional fuel costs and potentially creates concerns about the balance and equilibrium of the airborne plane.
It follows a recent mandate from the woke Transportation Department under Secretary Pete Buttigieg that airlines must shoulder additional burdens for the transport of wheelchairs to prevent any damage during flight.
Cheney previously made headlines for calling on the FAA to use taxpayer dollars to comp seats for obese passengers, mainly due to the reactions of fellow passengers who did not want to sit next to her.
She also petitioned that the FAA require new airplanes to have at least one wheelchair-accessible restroom to “promote a more inclusive and accommodating travel experience.”
