A queer couple were left shaken after a cab driver told them not to be affectionate to one another. (Screen captures via Twitter)
A taxi driver cancelled a gay couple’s ride midway on Thursday (1 October) after they placed their hands on one another’s knees in Perth, Australia.
Anthony Price and his partner, Jordan Hitch, were booted out of an Ola Cabs by a driver who has since been banned from not only Ola, but ridesharing apps DiDi and Uber as well.
The couple told OutInPerth that were stunned to hear the driver say “stop, this is my rule” when they were being affectionate to one another.
“I’ll drop you off here,” the driver said according to video footage seen by the outlet, “I can’t take you.”
Price and Hitch grabbed their bags and stormed out of the vehicle as the driver forced them off at a car park. They shared the footage of the incident to show “why we march at Pride”.
Many ride-hailing services have been dogged by similar incidents, while studies suggest that drivers at companies such as Uber and Lyft cancel on LGBT+ users almost twice as frequently as straight passengers.
Gay couple forced to flee from taxi after driver is homophobic.
The couple had returned from a romantic getaway to Broome when they flagged down a taxi.
“We’d been in the car for about five minutes,” Hitch told the outlet, “Anthony had his hand on my knee and I was resting my head on his shoulder, when the driver turned around and said: ‘None of that in this car, stop what you’re doing’.
“We just looked at each other trying to work out what was going on.”
Hitch hastily pulled out his mobile phone and began to record what was unfolding, with the footage showing the driver saying: “I’ll drop you off here… I can’t take you.”
“He told us to stop doing this behaviour,” Price said in the video, “because I have my hand on my partner’s leg.”
A representative of Ola said: “We do not in any way condone this behaviour from our drivers.
“This does not fall in line with our practices and guidelines.”
“Further action will be taken against the driver for his misconduct as per the Ola policy.”
“I get into rideshare cars three times a week in full drag but never have a problem,” Price reflected.
“So this is an isolated incident for us, but once we put the video up on Facebook we heard from lots of people who have had similar incidents.”