American Airlines’ whip-smart response to a homophobic tweet

June is Pride Month and many companies are celebrating and embracing the movement in fun, unique ways. AT&T created this heartwarming ad, American Apparel introduced their #EqualityForward collection, Google has their rainbow Easter egg —and that’s just naming a few. American Airlines also joined in, changing their Twitter avatar to a wing with a rainbow background. While responses to this celebration has been overall positive, there are still some people out there who, sadly, aren’t supportive of equality.

This was evidenced when one Twitter user made a homophobic remark in reference to American Airlines’ pride support. The tweet, which escalated from a complaint about a flight delay to AA’s rainbow avatar on Twitter, was obviously uncalled for and ignorant. But AA shut it down and shut it down good.

While the Twitter user has since made his account private, The Advocate managed to take a snapshot of the conversation below:

The subtlety of the response to Nathan Lorick is great —just the choice of “for” instead of “about” shows major poise and the most elegant shade we’ve ever seen thrown in the history of shade. @NathanLorick, we ARE sorry for your disappointment.

The tweet quickly gathered a tremendous amount of support. Here are a few more heartwarming tweets:

Indeed, American Airlines —you do slay! It’s amazing to see the company take time out of their day to respond to such a hurtful tweet. In doing so, they’re showing public support for the LGBTQ+ community, and that homophobia is not something they’re OK with. So the next time you fly with American Airlines, be sure to throw away your liquids AND your bigotry at security.

(Images via Twitter)