guidelines

Vegas’ Homosexual Taxi Riders Should Be Handled With Latex Gloves

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The Las Vegas Taxi Authority’s officer handbook, in the Exposure to Communicable Diseases section, which advises staffers how to stay safe when dealing with high-risk passengers, lumps in homosexuals with I.V. drug users and prostitutes as the types of passengers to be treated with protective gear.

“It took my breath away to read that,” says former officer Scott Lewis. “It lumps in homosexuals and gays with drug users and prostitutes. Drug users and prostitutes as we know are criminals. … My question is, what is a homosexual? How can you tell? Would you ask them, ‘Are you homosexual?’ and then stop, as it says, for your personal protective equipment.”

For the record, the Taxi Authority says the language was removed from manuals in June 2007, but at least four officers were given the old documents. Which is … great news for a city that actively targets gay tourists, and even better news for a local transportation industry that already sucks so bad.

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