Gay Men Claim Driver Ousted Them From Cab

[kweerwolf]

Three gay men say they were kicked out of a Twin Cities taxi by a cabbie who said a couple's kiss violated his religious beliefs.

The three men took a cab home after partying at The Saloon in downtown Minneapolis last Friday.

Brent Opall said his friends exchanged a kiss in the cab. "It wasn't anything very intimate, just a peck on the cheek," he said.

Opall said the driver started yelling, "making statements like he can't be surrounded by people like us -- it was against his religion, (making statements such as) 'Burn in hell,' 'Go to hell.'"

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_341103455.html

[darkmaestro019]

1. you hear that, fundies? they wanted the special right to kiss in a cab!

what will those wacky queers demand next? :sarcasm:

Does this cabbie require a marriage certificate of straight couples who kiss in his cab?

EDIT: For the cab driver--too late, sweetie. You're already surrounded. Notice how you let them into your cab in the first place with no clue they were THOSE kind of boys? That's right. On every street corner, in every restaurant, at the depot when you check in after your shift, at the bank where you cash your check. We are everywhere. Get better gaydar, or better yet, get over it.

[mermaid]

6. Hmmmm...

A peck on the cheek? That sounds like the kind of kiss a father might give a son...or a brother might give to a brother.

christ sake, WHY can't these people just GET THE FUCK OVER THEMSELVES?!?!

[darkmaestro019]

10. Pretty much

I hug straight male friends ALL THE TIME for meetings and partings, kind of normal in our particular subculture, and I'm so tiny not one of them can resist picking me up most of the time. : )

and from what I understand in lots of European-type countries kind of a mutual peck on the cheek is normal between friends of multiple gender pairings.

All this freakout about a gesture of love of any kind strikes me as terribly, horribly, morality-turned-upside-down wrong.

[kweerwolf]

11. Kind of says a lot about our culture ...

... when we are more comfortable with images of two men killing each other than two men kissing.

[davidinalameda]

2. lovely

someone's gonna be getting free cab rides for the rest of their natural life

[sdfernando]

3. Why did he pick them up?

If the cabbie was so against gays, why did he pick up a fare in front of The Saloon, a KNOWN gay establishment???

[Creideiki]

14. I'm guessing it was more than a "peck on the cheek"

but still. The cab driver is completely wrong. Also to put someone out of the cab given the intense cold we've had in Chicago borders on inhuman; I can only guess how bad it was in Minneapolis.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

4. This is scary shit . . .

The O'Lielly/Limpballs programs and their ilk have got these morons so worked up that now we are going to start seeing widespread violence. This is looking like Berlin 1935. The anti-intellectual/anti-gay bashing is a big, big sign of fascism.

My best friend is a very petite lesbian lady, and I fear for her and her spouse. I don't like guns, but I know how to use one . . . I'm thinking maybe she needs to know too.

[benburch]

5. GBLT gun resources...

http://www.pinkpistols.org/

[CrazyOrangeCat]

7. Excellent, thank you! n/t

[kevinbgoode]

8. Apparently the cabbie decided that he could violate

the religious beliefs of his passengers by imposing his own. Unless he owns that car himself, the company sets the policies for service.

His religious beliefs mean squat if they aren't universally enforced. I doubt this bozo dumps people out for saying "Damn" in his cab.

His cab is not a place of worship -it is a place of business. Their conduct was no different than any hetero couple, any set of friends could have conducted. Unless the company has a "no kissing" policy on display, his employer needs to tell him to f*ck off.

Whose religious beliefs prohibit kisses on the cheek? I'd like to know what denomination prohibits that practice among humans.

[Occulus]

12. the bigots won't learn this until they start getting shot for it n/t

[freestyle]

9. Minnesota includes GLBT's in its anti-discrimination laws.

This cab driver and/or his company will have some explaining and paying to do, and will probably have to have some courses on the fact that there are very few reasons to refuse a fare, and even fewer to put a customer out. This driver needs to get over it.

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. "It is against my religious beliefs to allow blacks or Jews in my cab."

If that was the attituded of the cabbie, would O`Lielly be in such a froth? Would the media have actually bothered to cover the story perhaps? What if it was a black driver who refused to pick up white folks? Why are gay people given the "special right" to be the only "legitimate" target of hate and bigotry?

[mermaid]

15. Don't You Know??

Of course, it is because BEING GAY IS A CHOICE!! Didn't you know all straight people made a concious choice to be straight, and all gay people made a conscious choice to be gay?

Because gay people made the "wrong" choice...the "socially unacceptable" choice...it is perfectly legitimate to target them for hatred and bigotry.

Maybe if we all, as a society hate on them enough, and oppress them enough, they will come around to our way of thinking and denounce the awful gay lifestyle, and it'll be happily ever after, right?

Just like the insurgent Muslims in Iraq are likely to just come to it one day and say to the Americans who are committing atrocities against them and their culture..."Hey, we just realized you guys were right all along! Let's link arms and sing Kum-Bah-Yah!!"

Yep. They really think that by coming across with a message as comforting as a crown of thorns, and by repeated atrocity and punishment, that they will get the oppressed to agree with their oppressor in the end, and it'll be all smiles.

How fucking stupid ARE these people?!!?

[TechBear_Seattle]

16. Being atheist (or Christian, for that matter) is also a choice.

I know you are yanking my chain :hi: But the response is appropriate to the whole "choice" argument: If gay people can be persecuted because of their "choice", why should I not be allowed to persecute Christians for their "choice"?

[mermaid]

17. But Don't You See

CHOOSING to be "Christian" is the CORRECT CHOICE and so not only should they not be "persecuted" but in fact, their CHOICE should be affirmed, and they should be allowed to force it onto everyone else, and they should have the right to persecute others...enemies of their own choosing...because they made the "correct" choice in being "Christian."

That is their warped thinking!