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septiembre 20, 2023
A die-hard Beyonce fan with cerebral palsy was able to lastly see his favourite artist carry out dwell in Seattle — however missed the present after an airline couldn’t match his wheelchair on their airplane.
Jon Hetherington, of Oregon, purchased a ticket to Beyonce’s sold-out “Renaissance World Tour” present at Lumen Area final weekend however was devastated when the Eugene airport mentioned his wheelchair was four inches too tall to fly.
“Acquired to the airport to take my flight and so they inform me that my chair is outwardly 4 inches too tall to be loaded on the airplane,” Hetherington said in a TikTok video he posted on Thursday.
“In order that they checked each potential flight, each airline, and nothing is accessible. So after 25 years of ready, I’m not seeing Beyonce tonight. So ableism strikes once more,” he mentioned.
The clip went viral on social media with greater than 88,000 views and Hetherington’s supporters tagged Beyonce and her crew. Some even supplied up their very own tickets in an try and get him to a present earlier than the “Loopy in Love” singer’s tour ends.
Quickly sufficient, Queen Bey’s longtime publicist adopted him again, leaving many to marvel if Beyonce will assist.
“I anticipated possibly a pair hundred individuals will see it. And that might be it,” Hetherington told KOMO.
Hetherington, 34, has declined to share the title of the airline in query, saying in a follow-up video that “it’s not only one airline, however all airways.”
“It’s each side of our society that we have now constructed to exclude disabled individuals. That’s the true drawback that we have to tackle right here,” he mentioned.
Hetherington mentioned this isn’t the primary time he’s skilled ableism attending live shows. Simply two weeks earlier, he was left stranded in Seattle for hours till 1 a.m. after a Janelle Monáe live performance.
“I’ve been ready over an hour as a result of apparently there aren’t any accessible taxis obtainable in all of Seattle,” Hetherington mentioned in one other video.
He mentioned he hopes his state of affairs will result in change in relation to the therapy of disabled individuals.
“I’ve all the time mentioned until you your self are disabled otherwise you instantly know any individual that you’re very near, it’s all the time out of sight, out of thoughts,” he told Insider.
“We would as nicely be invisible till society desires us to be an inspiration till there’s like some feel-good story that able-bodied individuals can learn and make themselves really feel higher,” Hetherington mentioned.
“We by no means take into consideration the day-to-day challenges. I don’t get to have that luxurious. I by no means have.”
