Two men from New York say they were kicked out of an Uber car after the driver realized they were gay and became enraged.
Sam Simons and his friend Santiago Figeuroa (pictured together) say they were riding home from a night out when they posed for a selfie together in the backseat. Everything was fine and dandy until Figeuroa kissed Simmons. That’s when the driver allegedly slammed on the brakes.
“Man should not kiss man!” he yelled, repeatedly, before demanding the pair get out of the vehicle.
Related: Uber Driver Fired For Refusing To Let Gay People In His Car
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“We didn’t get out and told him to do his job and take us home but he refused to drive and kept yelling at us,” Simons said, adding, “It was not like we were all over each other. It was just a peck on the lips and an arm round my shoulder.”
Eventually, the men got out of the vehicle and called another car to pick them up.
“I love Uber,” Simmons said. “It’s a great service. But this was unacceptable.”
An Uber spokeswoman said: “As a company we do not tolerate any form of discrimination whatsoever, and we have been in contact with this rider to offer our support.
“Uber prides itself on providing the highest quality, safest and most convenient service, so we take any incident where we fall short very seriously.
“In any incident, such as this, we suspend the driver in question while we investigate.”
Related: Married Uber Driver Tried To Sexually Assault Male Passenger
Grant Mealey
Well what a rude moron
Carol Schwab Leister
Many years ago I was in a cab in Philly, and we drove past some people, and two of the men apparently were kissing (I didn’t see it). My driver started ranting a bit about gay people, so I told him about Plato’s split-souls theory. He totally backpedaled, with an ‘oh, I never thought of it that way’ kind of thing. I presume he was probably trying to save his tip, but I like to think I might have changed his mind. (and yes, I was pretentious. Still am, probably.)
Dakotahgeo
UBER should not hire any non-white cab drivers from Africa, or Islamic extremists… that is just asking for trouble!
Brian
If it was a simple kiss, the Uber driver’s reaction was completely unwarranted.
Ladbrook
I grabbed a cab at the Atlanta airport in the summer of 2014 and politely gave him the address to my hotel. As we were leaving the airport he started babbling about “faggots marrying” in America and how he wished he’d not been “brought here” by his parents when he was a teenager. (He was Middle-Eastern).
Long story short, it scared the fuck out of me. I kept my mouth shut but refused to tip him after I got out. I promptly called the cab company and reported him. To this day, I wonder if he got fired or if he’s still driving unsuspecting LGBTs around Atlanta.
Captain proton
but.. but.. what about the poor driver’s religious freedom?
enfilmigult
What an idiot. You’re in New York, dude.
JessPH
The driver was a Muslim… How surprising!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/men-uber-driver-cops-kissing_55f83b60e4b00e2cd5e7f849
But, seriously, i blame UBER more for not making it very clear that this kind of discrimination is not permissible.
JessPH
By the way, this happened in LONDON and NOT New York. The police actually arrived and they were the ones who called a new ride for the couple.
Oh, Queerty. Don’t you even fact check the things you publish?
NJjoe
UBER should be ashamed of itself for allowing hatred and hate speak permitted among their drivers. Would he like it if her were judge on being basically a “cab driver?” Not that there is nothing wrong with that, but it takes little education and perhaps that is what he lacks.
Tony Minutella
Another crackpot
Paul Ditz
Hey you! STFU and drive!
Phranc Azzhee
waaaay too far for the driver. Just shut up and drive!!! do you job not butt into other peeps biz! Kim Davis syndrome???????
Sidney Davies
And yet he is driving a man made vehicle fueled by dead dinosaurs.
Alex Rothwell
Surely Uber can screen drivers they hire.
Alexander R. Rodriguez
Then don’t kiss in public. Problem solved….
SeeingAll
@Alex Rothwell: If asked directly about their feelings on homosexuality, word will quickly get around with these Muslims to lie about it to get the job.
Tony DeFazio
His job is to drive you somewhere safely and courteously–
Sergio Troncoso
I wonder why
SeeingAll
@Alexander R. Rodriguez: No, Alex, the problem are homophobic immigrants who actually move to the (more functional; better) U.S./Europe and then think everybody is supposed to act like they do back where the immigrant came from.
Glücklich
@Sidney Davies:
Get help for your drug problem.
TheAngryFag
Why is everyone focusing on race in here? Did Mick Huckabee, Tony Perkins, Kim Davis and the rest of that ilk suddenly change races?
Chris
In Minneapolis, there were some cab drivers who had issues with working on the sabbath and/or driving gay folk. The cab company quickly told them to do their jobs and get over it. ….. It seems to me that Uber needs to make its policy clear to its non-employees in the same way.
SeeingAll
@TheAngryFag: We don’t have to be in cars with them.
Darryl Moir
I would have slashed the seats on my out.
Ronnyboy
This happened in London. They didn’t say the drivers last name but you can bet it’s going to long Arabic sounding one.
JessPH
@Ronnyboy: The driver’s name was Abdishakur Adow
Check out the victim’s twitter account:
https://twitter.com/superstarsam13
or the Huffpost article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/men-uber-driver-cops-kissing_55f83b60e4b00e2cd5e7f849
Europe is getting totally f*cked up by their relentless acceptance of Muslim migrants and refugees.
TampaBayTed
I have a hot “straight” buddy from Eastern Europe. He loves having me ass fuck him, sucking his dick, and working his nips, but he won’t kiss since that’s only for the ladies. I’ve had gay guys that really don’t like kissing, but they’ll rim an ass any day. Go figure.
Ronnyboy
@JessPH: The problem with Muslim migrants is that they don’t assimilate…at all.
SeeingAll
@Ronnyboy: Wouldn’t you think the Muslim immigrants would see the logic that the highest-achieving countries with the best quality of life are the ones that are also the most gay-friendly? So….some Supreme Being has to be approving. (Or at least not angry about it). But, no, in their new countries they try to impose the same rules, that obviously don’t have any good effects, that they went by back in the religious theocracies they fled.
Bauhaus
@TampaBayTed:
Some things never change.
Auxifur White Wolf Wolfgram
His job is to drive where people need to go, while he takes the money and keeps his fucking mouth shut!
Rick Holtz
People like him should never, EVER work with the public. They belong in isolated, basement cubicles.
Hussain-TheCanadian
A lot of people on here are hating on Muslims and immigrants, that’s really shameful and we shouldn’t lump people together.
Last time an Afghani Cabi told me to be “ashamed” of myself for being Muslim and gay, I reminded him that he was a guest in my country, and being ignorant as he was to a client wasn’t acceptable.
Then I went on to tell him that being gay is not a choice, it is biological, and no matter he tried to hind behind the Qur’an to justify his bigotry, he had no right to be rude to me.
He apologized – This is how we educate our Muslim and/or immigrant communities, by teaching them our culture – Surely bad mouthing them online won’t change a thing.
SeeingAll
@Hussain-TheCanadian: Wait til Muslims are the majority in Canada and then see how fast he apologizes. And how long your own rights last. (The days of the queer-friendly Sufi poets are long gone).
Jon Mackey
Hussain-TheCanadian
@SeeingAll: I understand your fears, but remember that the majority of Muslims are silent when it comes to gay rights. Gay Muslims in European and North American countries prefer to keep silent and stand up to the bigots within the Muslim community; we should help them.
Muslims overall in Canada make up only 3% of the population, so even if we wanted to accept the premise that all of them are bigots, they are not going to take over Canada anytime soon; it gives us gay Muslims more time to refute the bigots on both a religious and an intellectual level.
We, as the gay community, can teach our immigrant community our ways and values; we just have to be nice and brave about it.
Hussain-TheCanadian
@Hussain-TheCanadian: Not stand up to the bigots within****
SeeingAll
@Hussain-TheCanadian: Okay. I do wish you the best, personally, and your plan sort of makes sense, sort of….but I’m not as confident as you are. I’d like to believe your strategy could work, but……Anyway, the UK might be the best guage to watch and see what happens in the future.
Wooly
A mussy blows his cool.
Merv
Fortunately, twenty-five years from now most cab rides will be in self-driving vehicles, and we won’t have to deal with this crap.
Arcamenel
@Dakotahgeo: Yes because it’s all those damn Muslim immigrants passing anti-gay legislation and fighting against our rights….
Dakotahgeo
@Arcamenel: Unnn… yes! (Silly guy, you are!) 😉
Giancarla85
It seems that cab companies would be best off not hiring African or Middle Eastern immigrant drivers. They’re notoriously bigoted and hateful.
NJjoe
Look, I’ve been in the back of a cab with Middle Easter drivers and I will call a spade a spade because of my personal experiences- They are always rude (rule #1 don’t be rude, if you are no tip!), avoid any kind of casual conversation and smell. Puhleeze, hang some of those pine trees! There I said it. Not to offend anyone of M.E. descent, but that has been my experiences of riding in a cab with a Middle Eastern driver. Maybe they don’t like driving white people around? I don’t know? I never had a problem with an African-American driver. As far as white drivers, I’ve yet to run into one yet. And I use cabs very often.
Daggerman
…what the hell is going on? What are they, that idiot going to do about it? Stop men from kissing? If I was treated like that in a cab along with my boyfriend I would strangle the c**t..literally..
o.codone
@JessPH: nobody wants any fact-checking here. queerty is just dish. no reality here. none is expected, and, look at the comments, the gays here are idiots, and god knows, they do NOT want any facts.
Dakotahgeo
@o.codone: Unfortunately, in this case, you are correct. Queerty seems to go after the mundane, and most of the ‘girls’ just lick it up from the floor.
o.codone
@Dakotahgeo: “just lick it up from the floor”. oh, baby.
Dakotahgeo
Only a connoisseur of filth would even comment on that phrase. Congrats!