06/22/2026
In April of 1983, Frontier Airlines flight attendant Allen Chamberlin filed a lawsuit in the Sacramento Superior Court against his employer. Chamberlin argued that Frontier was refusing to provide his partner of nine years, Joe Shields, with reduced air travel benefits, a benefit provided to heterosexual employees. The law firm of Metrailer, Langenkamp & Buscho represented him (a few years after this case was filed, Metrailer represented the Rev. Jerry Sloan to sue Rev. Jerry Falwell successfully).
Langenkamp is quoted in a May 1983 issue of Mom Guess What! explaining, “In his lawsuit, Mr. Chamberlin alleges that Frontier Airlines discriminates against its gay employees because it conditions reduced air travel benefits on a status (marriage) which they are unable to attain.” They also argued that the airline was violating the California constitutionally protected right of privacy.
In 1984, Judge Roger K. Warren ruled that Chamberlin’s complaint must be argued with the Association of Flight Attendants Union and the airlines, not the courts. However, the argument based on his right to privacy remained in the court to be processed. Chamberlin and Shields filed a marriage certificate in Denver, but Judge Warren ruled it invalid. The newspaper photo shown here was taken by Tim Warford for the April 20, 1983, issue of the Sacramento Star covering the case. It shows Chamberlin (left) and his attorney Langenkamp (right) discussing the lawsuit.
In 2008, the California Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriages. After a few setbacks, same-sex marriage was legalized in California in 2013 and by the federal government in 2015.
(Small collections from the Sacramento region, MS0078)
