News (World)

Gay men allegedly kicked out of Uber in freezing weather for kissing

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A London gay man said he and his friends were kicked out of an Uber car because two of his male friends kissed.

The clubbers were coming home from the gay club Heaven last May when one man in the group gave another a “peck on the cheek” to “say thank you for coming out to celebrate their birthday,” according to Paul Hanafin.

“We had just been chatting away about what a good night we’d had but this totally spoiled it. We had to get a bus the rest of the way…. We had such a good time and all of a sudden the driver just turned cold on us. He said: ‘You’re not doing that in my car.’ We were a bit shocked by it. I said: ‘Excuse me?’

“I could maybe understand it if they were snogging but they were only holding hands and had a peck on the cheek. We were laughing because we thought it was a joke but he kept telling us it wasn’t funny. He got dead serious and told us to get out. He told us he didn’t want any ‘gay stuff’ in his car. It was so disgusting and so rude.”

The group had to take a bus to get back to their car. “When he kicked us out I had no idea where we were, our phone batteries were dying, and it was about 4am. It was freezing cold and we were all wondering: ‘What do we do now?’ We had to work out how to get a bus to where my car was parked.”

Hanafin complained to Uber to get a refund. “We complained to Uber and gave the driver a rubbish rating. To be fair, they were outraged too and were really helpful. They are a modern, international company and dealt with it really well. They gave us a full refund. If if hadn’t been for their positive response, I would not be using them again. This was probably just one bad egg.”

Uber confirmed to the Daily Mail that the complaint was investigated and that disciplinary action was taken against the driver, but would not disclose more information citing privacy concerns.

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