This a well-written article that addresses a challenging topic about which many might be curious. Thank you for writing it.

I have been curious about the topic for a personal reason. Generally speaking, I always believe that a person's qualifications should be the only concern, and one's gender, sexual orientation, religion or political beliefs should not be factors. However, the world is not perfect. For example, it's why I always take a stand in the workplace about equity for female executives (as a male, I sadly report that more still needs to be done for gender equity--especially in large corporations) and the LGBT community (no one's sexuality should be relevant so long as it neither impacts performance nor harasses anyone).

As for my personal reason, it pertains to racism. I'm a patriot who believes in being American first and foremost, and everyone's ancestry, albeit relevant, is secondary. That said, it upsets me when I encounter racism. In the past decade, the only instances, four of them, in which I've experienced prejudice are ones involving male flight attendants.

I've written ~60 commendation e-mails for flight attendants in that decade, and I abstain from submitting negative feedback because I don't know their circumstances (e.g., I'd be unpleasant, too, if I just sat at ORD for 4 hours--unpaid--during a ground-stop or am now working SAN-JFK when I just worked JFK-SAN 20 minutes ago). In those rare cases pertaining to negative feedback, I just give the purser a heads-up so that the issue can be addressed among the crew (because I've had bad days at work, too, and would rather have a co-worker tell me to check myself than be scolded by a colleague with a clipboard who's never done my job).

I never submitted complaints about the four incidents of racism from male flight attendants. I didn't even tell the pursers on those flights (yet somehow, I received full refunds for my business-class fares on each of those occasions; I'm still mystified by this). I can defend and assert myself poignantly, but I'm not one to escalate a situation while on an airplane because it just leads to delay for fellow passengers and grief for the crew. Forced to absorb the prejudice displayed by those individuals (my skin is thick so I'm fine), the experiences left me with a suspicious curiosity about male flight attendants.

There are bad eggs in any vocational basket. I choose to believe that the four men I encountered are anomalies and don't reflect the overall professionalism, compassion and patience that flight attendants display consistently. I hope that every passenger appreciates the essential order and civility that the many, many excellent flight attendants provide. There are seemingly countless selfish, idiotic individuals among us passengers, so try to imagine a flight without excellent flight attendants (on that note, always look out for the flight attendants on your flights and make sure no passengers harass or inhibit them from doing their jobs).

Despite my respect and appreciation for flight attendants, I am curious about male flight attendants based upon my four distasteful experiences. Thank you for writing this article. It makes me feel as if my curiosity is a healthy one, instead of a vengeful one. Moreover, I believe people of any sexual orientation, preference or level like to have fun, or get laid.

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