Says She Was Kicked Off Flight Because Her Shirt Wasn't PC

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Lorrie Heasley's was worth 1003. But it was those last three words that got her booted from a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Portland Tuesday and now, she's suing the airline.

"I have cousins in Iraq and other relatives going to war," Heasley told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane in midflight over a T-shirt. That's not freedom."

Heasley's t-shirt pictured President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Rice. The caption read... well, something very much like "Meet the Fockers..." only different by one letter.

An SWA spokeswoman said the whole thing was about "decency," saying Heasley was taken off the flight in Reno, NV, because airline workers were afraid other passengers would be outraged. She was first given the chance to cover up the t-shirt, according to the airline. Heasley denies that.

The rules on what you can and can't wear as a political statement aren't exactly clear. Southwest's contract with the FAA says the airline can deny boarding to anyone who is offensive, abusive or violent. As far as dress is concerned, the airline can refuse anyone whose clothing is "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive," according to SWA.

The FAA's position: "It's up to the airlines who they want to take and by what rules," FAA spokesman Donn Walker told reporters. "The government just doesn't get into the business of what people wear on an aircraft."

FMI: www.southwest.com