My wife today, got onto a train, packed. Heavily pregnant lady gets on and excuses herself past my wife and then approaches a group sitting on the seats meant to be disabled and pregnant priority seating asking for someone to swap. NO ONE DOES. My wife steps in and asks one of them who is an able bodied middle age man. THIS MAN PROCEEDS TO ARGUE why he should give up his seat like it’s his birthright and says to pregnant lady she should have caught a bus instead. He gives up seat, not before having a hissy fit about it. Proceeds to shove his bag in pregnant lady’s face. She politely asks him to take the bag away as it’s making it uncomfortable and hurting her. He proceeds to tell her “no, I’ve already given up my seat”. If you’re the middle aged man reading this. Grow up and learn to respect women. I honestly hope you don’t have a wife or girls for children, because your behaviour was appalling. I’m so proud of my wife for standing up for another woman. To the other women on the train who turned a blind eye. Ignorance is not bliss. Stand up, band together, I’m sure you’d have wanted a seat if you were pregnant or disabled. I’m a man and I’m shocked that NOT ONE PERSON/MAN OR WOMAN wanted to back my wife up. I get it, it’s busy, everyone has their own shit happening, everyone is in their own world. But giving up a seat for the vulnerable people in our population shouldn’t be this difficult. For added context, I wasn’t on the train, so no, I couldn’t have backed her up. This is not some rant, this is a PSA to the majority of us who take public transport to be courteous to our vulnerable population who the seats were intended for.
TLDR: pregnant woman needed seat on train, my wife had to almost fist fight an able bodied, middle aged man for a seat. PSA be kind to our vulnerable population on public transport.