Good Sports: ROSA PARKS TRAILBLAZER
In 2007, while attempting to fly from Buffalo, New York, to Sacramento, California, Gurinder Singh Khalsa was asked to remove his turban at an airport security checkpoint. He declined to do so and was not allowed to board the plane. Since then, the Indiana man has led an effort to change the Transportation Security Administration’s policy on turbans, so other Sikhs would not suffer similar indignities. He met with members of Congress and collected 67,000 signatures on a petition.
For his efforts, Indiana Minority Business Magazine awarded him the Rosa Parks Trailblazer Award on Jan. 18 at the 2019 Champions of Diversity Dinner.
TSA “not only the changed policy, they also had our (Sikh) community people engage with those TSA checkpoints all over the U.S. to give them the training and let them know how we need to be more sensitive and accommodative to the article of faith,” Khalsa told his local newspaper, Current. “That is the beauty. That makes me in my heart feel we are one of the best countries on the face of the earth.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? Please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
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