text: Clint Bench was born with with a congenital deformity that prevented his arms from fully forming. That didn't stop him from going to college, getting married, having children or from riding roller coasters at Six Flags Over Texas. He's done pretty much all of them: Batman, the Texas Giant, the Flashback, you name it. His limbs had never been an issue. Not much is, actually: He can do pullups, fire a gun and go mountain biking, for Christ's sake. 
   
   Then, last May, he got on the Aquaman Splashdown ride, a Six Flags standby in which a boat plummets down a two-story decline before sending up a wall of water that soaks riders and the onlookers on the bridge below. It used to be called something generic before it was renamed for a second-tier DC Comics character. 
   
   There's nothing particularly dangerous about Aquaman compared with the amusement park's other attractions, certainly nothing Bench couldn't handle, but nevertheless, a Six Flag employee asked Bench to get off the ride. 
   
   "She told him that he could not ride Aquaman because he does not have hands," according to a lawsuit filed Bench filed yesterday. "This caused Mr. Bench considerable embarrassment, as his children had never seen anybody discriminate against him due to his lack of natural hands." 
   
   When he complained to management, he was told that Six Flags policy dictates that riders "must have at least one fully formed arm all the way down to the fingers." 
   
   But that wasn't exactly true, at least not until four months later, when Six Flags published an updated riders' guide explicitly stating that riders "must have one full arm" to ride Aquaman. The old policy said only that a rider has to be able to grasp, which Bench can do just fine. 
   
   Bench claims discrimination under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Six Flags doesn't, after all, kick people off rides who, "for extra thrill or in a silly display of bravado," keep their hands in the air. 
   
   Bench is asking for unspecified damages for suffering and mental anguish. And he still wants to ride Aquaman, goddammit. ||||| One Texas man is accusing Six Flags of barring him from a ride because he doesn't have hands. 
   
   Clint Bench who was born without hands due to a congenital deformity, has led an active lifestyle, not letting his lack of hands stop him from mountain biking, getting a college education and doing one of his favorite activities: thrill-seeking at amusement parks, according to the Dallas News. 
   
   That is until one May 2012 trip to a Six Flags in Arlington, Texas, where an employee refused to allow him to ride an attraction called the Aquaman Splashdown he’d been on several times before. Bench was apparently in violation of a new policy that said he "must have at least one fully formed arm all the way down to the fingers," The Dallas Observer reports. 
   
   "This caused Mr. Bench considerable embarrassment, as his children had never seen anybody discriminate against him due to his lack of natural hands,” according to Bench’s lawsuit, which rather than money, seeks only to ensure “that this doesn’t happen again,” he told CBS Dallas. 
   
   Six Flags declined to comment to CBS Dallas because the lawsuit is ongoing. 
   
   The move seems somewhat of an about-face for Six Flags, which has historically been accommodating to those with disabilities. Disabled guests of the park were often allowed to cut lines and then given the opportunity to make reservations until 2007, when the park determined people were faking injuries to take advantage of the policy, Theme Park Insider notes. 
   
   Sadly, this isn’t the only Six Flags lawsuit concerning those without four full limbs. In 2008, Six Flags made a confidential settlement with Kaitlyn Lassiter, a then 13-year-old guest whose feet were severed while riding the Superman Tower of Power, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. 
   
   Also on HuffPost: Disabled Man Clint Bench Sues Six Flags Disabled Man Clint Bench Sues Six Flags 
   
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target: – A Texas amusement park enthusiast who was born without hands is suing Six Flags for refusing to let him onto a ride. Clint Bench alleges that last May a Six Flags Over Texas employee wouldn't let him on the Aquaman Splashdown (a variation on the classic log flume). When he complained, management told him Six Flags policy required riders to "have at least one fully formed arm all the way down to the fingers" to ride, according to the Dallas Observer. Bench was chagrined, given that he'd ridden the ride before. According to the Observer, Six Flags didn't have any such published policy at the time; it showed up in an updated riders' guide four months later. The old policy only required a rider to be able to grasp, which Bench is capable of—he can even do pull-ups, shoot a gun, and ride a mountain bike. He's asking for unspecified damages, saying he was discriminated against under the Americans With Disabilities Act.