Who is Ray Lin Howard? Woman claims she lost 200 lbs after being fat-shamed and kicked off Alaska Airlines
You may remember the Fairbanks woman who was escorted off an Alaska Airlines flight on the night of September 3, 2021, after she was told her outfit violated the company’s dress code. Well, she is back and here's why.
As reported by TMZ, the resident of Alaska, Ray Lin Howard has recently gone under the knife to lose hundreds of pounds. Earlier in the year 2021 when she became viral after the incident, she weighed 420 pounds, and at present after going under a surgical procedure along with her diet and exercise routine, she has lost around 181 pounds.
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The 34-year-old hairstylist credited Dr Samuel Kashani for helping her come down to 239 pounds with a daily walking routine and healthy eating habits. Ray went through gastric sleeve surgery which is a procedure that removes 75-80 percent of the stomach fat, according to UCLA Health. You can see the transformation and the weight loss images here by TMZ.
Dr Samuel, who followed her story, later reached out to Ray and extended his offer to help. He offered to perform a weight loss surgery that would have typically cost $42,000 for free.
The viral incident
Last year, on September 3, Ray shared an unfortunate incident on TikTok and Instagram which showed her being kicked off of a flight for being fat, tattooed and mixed-race. As shown in the footage, she was wearing biker shorts along with a crop top and was escorted out of the flight by the airport police as her stomach was showing while seated.
In a video shared online, she wrote, “I was harassed about my outfit — I put my shirt back on. They asked me to put my shirt back on. [So] I put my shirt back on, and then, they approached me again, saying that I can’t wear this, my stomach is showing — and it’s inappropriate.” After the flight attendants insisted that she should cover herself up, the stylist claimed to have done so by putting a leopard print shirt over herself, but that was not enough for the authorities. After the flight landed, she was taken to a small room in the airport to talk with officers. "It was humiliating. And I honestly felt dehumanized — they told the police that I wouldn’t keep my clothes on,” narrated Ray.
In a span of time of her sharing the footage, the video garnered over 1.3 million views where people slammed the airline for body shamming the hairstylist.
