Flight Attendant Sues Continental Over Haircut Demand

Wouldn't let him have a mohawk

Continental Airlines must face claims that supervisors discriminated against a gay flight attendant by making him trim his "unprofessional and extreme" mohawk haircut, a federal judge ruled.

The dispute stems from a haircut that flight attendant Ray Falcon allegedly consented to receive to keep from losing his job with Continental Airlines in 2010.

Falcon claims that soon after he checked in at the Newark Liberty International Airport crew room to work a late flight to Paris, the duty desk attendant alerted in-flight supervisors that Falcon sported a mohawk hairstyle.

The supervisors then sent Falcon back to the crew room, where he was allegedly told that his "unprofessional and extreme" hair violated the airline's appearance standards.

Falcon, who has worked for Continental for nearly five years, says his superiors told him to correct his appearance himself or be removed from the Paris flight.

But even after Falcon applied gel to flatten his hair, his supervisors—knowing that he is gay—remained intent on removing him from the flight, he claims.