“My name is Laura Haynor and I’m a Minnesota resident and a Minneapolis-based pilot for Delta Airlines,” the representative from Airline Pilots Association International said in opening her testimony before a Minnesota state senate committee hearing on Thursday.
“Miss Haynor, is that correct?” Republican state senator Gene Dornink of Freeborn and Mower Counties inquires as though this is the first time he ever listened to a woman, which he clearly had not. “Can you tell me what a typical week, work week looks like for you as a stewardess? How does…”
As the room around him murmurs, Haynor replies, “I’m a First Officer for Delta.” When Dornink again says he didn’t hear the woman, she repeats, “I’m a pilot for–”
“I’m sorry, I apologize,” Dornink interjects. “I don’t know why I said that.” Perhaps he doesn’t, but we do.