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Gay Lufthansa Flight Attendant Fired for Having Boy Friend in Crew Hotel Room
 

FRANKFURT, November 21, 2008  –  A gay flight attendant with the German airline Lufthansa claims he has been dismissed following an incident where the police were involved when he had his boyfriend in a Tokyo hotel room during a ‘stop-over’.

Shinichi ‘Toshi’ Uto, aged 40 and a Japanese national, has the support of his trade union VERDI in a case of unfair dismissal against the airline to be heard in Frankfurt early next month.

Mr. Uto was arrested by police on September 10 under suspicion of illegal prostitution at the hotel used by Lufthansa cabin crew.

But when it was realised that Mr. Uto’s boy friend was 17, the “charge” became an illegal sexual act.

In Tokyo, the age of consent is 18.  But, Mr. Uto told UK Gay News that in his home province in Japan the age of consent was 16, as it is in most of Japan.”

In Germany, the age of consent is 16 and, Mr. Uto’s legal team contends, the airline should not have dismissed him.

The reason given for the dismissal is for “harming the airline’s image” in Japan, where the case had raised some media attention.

Mr. Uto spent 19 days in prison in Japan.

“The first time a Lufthansa representative cared to show up at the prison was nine days after the arrest,” a spokesperson for Mr. Uto’s legal team said.

He was released from detention after agreeing to pay a ‘fine’. But he pointed out that this does not amount to a confession.

After 19 days in jail, he said, he would have done anything to get out, especially after his company had done nothing to help him.

Mr. Uto, who has been employed by Lufthansa for 16 years, lives in a small town near Frankfurt.  He said that he and his boy-friend still consider their relationship “strong and solid”, even though they have not been able to see each other since his return to Germany as he can not afford to travel to Japan at his own expense.

The employees’ association for Lufthansa flight attendants has expressed its shock about the case.

“It is hard to imagine that the whole story would be considered to be harmful to the public image of Lufthansa in Japan, if the flight attendant had been with a 17-year-old female,” the staff group fumed in its newsletter.

“We wonder, if our German employer will do anything to protect its staff members abroad and will defend the values of the German constitution even in foreign media or will rather support a local attitude of discrimination in order to defend its economic interest.”

“Lufthansa never advised its flight attendants of this exception in Tokyo,” the flight attendant’s staff association’s newsletter says.

Lufthansa has not returned telephone calls or email from UK Gay News inviting comment.

Seed Newsvine