American Airlines prides itself on its inclusion and have made great strides in including queer employees in their mix: they're the first airline to include gender identity in their internal non-discrimination policy. That said, it come as no surprise that the aviation company announced they support non-discrimination legislation for sexuality and gender identity.

Their announcement, however, doesn't come without its own baggage.

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American Airlines finally decided to jump on the gay marketing train.

While competitors have courted the queers for years, American Airlines has preferred sponsoring gay friendly events. Their new nostalgic ad campaign changes all that:

Recalling when travel was considered glamorous, new print ads in The Advocate and online look like vintage, 50s-era illustrated posters, but with the twist of two carefree men stepping off the plane together. The tagline is "Fly forward" and was created by American's longtime ad agency, TM Advertising, of Dallas, and Washington, D.C.-based gay marketing firm Witeck-Combs Communications.

"There's a sameness to travel ads, the same faces and couples in stock photography, we thought we'd like to try something more imaginative," explains American Airlines spokesman Tim Kincaid.

The ads sure are imaginative: what gay man wears Hawaiian shirts? Not to mention socks with loafers…

Airline endorsed magazines aren't the gold standard for journalism. We know this, but, for some dumb reason, we expect them to at least pretend to be interested in journalistic integrity. Sadly, American Airlines' American Way is not. Their "interview" with out B-Baller John Amaechi reads like an infomercial. And a cheaply done one, at that.

Most of the questions revolve around Amaechi's American Airline experience and how he spends his layovers in their "Admirals Club". It's understandable a free airline rag would sink to such lows, but we're disappointed in Amaechi for such a bold endorsement. Now, before you start defending the 36-year old jock, check out his "final thoughts":

After I came out as an openly gay athlee, my book generated 300 interviews in 25 American cities in just over three months. What made that grueling pace bearable was the wonderful AA staff on the ground and in the air… Thank you, American Airlines!

Amaechi's not entirely loyal to American Airlines. The Brit recently appeared at a Virgin America event.

• Hong Kong's Obscene Articles Tribunal ruled a lesbianic poem containing the line, "I'd like to pinch your thighs" too obscene for public display. It could have been worse. It could have said, "I want to lick your wet vagina until it swallows me whole." How's that for obscene?

• A Witeck-Combs Communications and Packaged Idea study claims gays will have at least $835 billion in disposable income by 2011. Approximately half will be spent on poppers and blow jobs.

• We wonder if any of those blow jobs will involve the new New York City condoms? They're just like regular condoms only New York-ier. Or something.

• You guys worked hard today. Why not take a look at some more naked footage from Big Brother Brazil?

• Big Brother Brazil may not censor hineys, but an American Airline employee censored the word "homosexual" from The Queen. (Oh, and God, too.)

• Those scamps at The Baptist Press have taken aim at Ford for advertising in fag-mags like Out. Shit, if they didn't have the gays, they'd be belly-up by now.

American Airlines has long been on the forefront of protecting LGBT rights being the first major U.S. airline to include its transgender employees in its antidiscrimination policy, and also the first airline to launch a vacations website especially for LGBT travelers.

Now it's celebrating Gay Pride Month, which it is kicking off tomorrow night with an evening with Judy Shepard (mother of Matthew Shepard). You can read it about it and also the AA employee benefits on the (somewhat busted) GLBT employee website, GLEAM.

American Airlines and American Eagle Employees Celebrate Gay Pride Month [GLEAM via Pam's House Blend]

We use our passports just as often as we use our pink cards. So we were stoked to hear that American Airlines is going to make it more convenient for gays to fly to their favorite places. They’ve launched a site specifically for us.

They pat themselves on the back:

American Airlines is a leader in championing respect and inclusion for all people. Once again, we are proud to lead the industry as the first U.S. airline with its own vacation package site specifically for (the LGBT) community.

It's about time someone woke up and realized that the only fags flying the gay-friendly skies aren’t just those well-groomed male flight attendants.