Help Defend Faith and Livelihood from Woke Employer & Union

Greetings! I’m in a position where I need to ask for help after 17 months of anguish and stress. After 28 years, I was terminated by my employer, United Airlines, for being an observant Roman Catholic. I had engaged in a private conversation with a colleague about Catholic teaching and theology. Specifically, as it was May 31, I had stated that as Catholics, we are not to be affirming, celebrating, or observing Pride Month, something United Airlines observes and takes seriously.

A customer overheard my conversation, complained to my employer on my employer’s twitter account, saying that I was expressing transphobic, homophobic, and racist ideas. My colleague and I were discussing our working conditions and everyday life surrounding that issue. Because it was on twitter, my twitter timeline was subject to scrutiny. A supervisor went thru my entire timeline since 2010 when I started twitter, and decided to investigate me versus having a discussion about the complaintand issuing a warning about speaking about senstive issues at work.

During the investigation, the supervisor took it upon himself to comb through and cherry-pick my off-duty posts, which were all subject to scrutiny according to him, even back to when I started twitter in 2010. He did so in an effort to see if my posts aligned with the customer's complaint about my character. The posts/tweets he selected were memes I shared from others. By looking at those, supervisor accused me of not having dignity, respect, professionalism, and responsibility on twitter when I was off-duty (not in uniform and not using any company-issued device). The tweets had nothing to do with my company, their customers, their employees, their vendors. There was no nexus, and there was no discrimination or harassment to any one individual employee that would cause harm or fear in the workplace.

Further, I have never been accused of treating any customer, employee, vendor, or complete stranger less than equitable and fair because of their race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, or other protected classes. My views according to my faith, my political affiliation, and my service as a member of the United States military were not conducive to being an employee of United. Bottom line is, I was terminated based on a supervisor's opinion of what type of person I was based off of reading some random tweets that all started when a customer complained about me saying men don't give birth, women don't have penises, and the Catholic church could never approve of gay marriage as it is a Sacrament. Further, I have many mid- and senior-level management personnel who follow me, and none of them had a problem with my tweets since 2010.

My union, The Association Of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), told me in August that they will not be defending me at arbitration, I didn’t reach my goal in time, so the union told me they cancelled my arbitration, they withdrew my grievance, so I'm terminated with cause, and it all started because I shared church teachings in a private conversation and on my X/Twitter page. Now, I need funds to sue several entities.

I’m not interested in vengeance, retaliation, or causing economic harm to either United Airlines or AFA. I have friends that I love and would gladly take a bullet for at both United and AFA that depend on them for their livelihoods. I am doing this to defend and stand up for myself and for the teachings of the Catholic Church. I am a member of the US military, I defend this nation with my physical life, there is no way I can accept the idea that my Catholic faith is the reason I have lost my livelihood and reputation from my employer. I didn’t steal, I didn’t lie, I didn’t fail a drug test, I didn’t offend any of United’s customers, employees, or vendors. I need to mention that the customer who complained about me describes themselves as a “deep throat pro” and expresses joy when they’re double penetrated anally. That’s the person United gave more credibility, respect, and benefit of the doubt to than they gave me.

I feel now that this is what God wants me to engage in. It took many days and prayers to come to this realization. Saint Josemaria Escrivá always emphasized that we need to glorify God in every single thing we do, so I wanted to make sure that this was God’s will and not my will or my ego’s will.

Any amount over 18K dollars that I raise, I will be donating to charities that provide funds for men discerning the priesthood, but don’t have the funds to pursue it. Without Priests, there is no Eucharist.

Thank you from the bottom of my humble heart. I will be as transparent as I can, the last thing I want is to lose the trust of anyone. God Bless Always!

-Ruben D Sanchez Jr

Anchorage, Alaska