Two gay men’s flirting went too far for one Uber driver because of her Christian faith.
This past Saturday night, A gay Londoner was attending a birthday party at a friend’s house. It was there that he met “a handsome man.” The two hit it off and found out they lived in the same direction, so they decided to share an Uber ride back.
“It was around 3 a.m. when I decided to go home and I suggested to the handsome man that we share an Uber as he had also said he was leaving shortly, too,” the Londoner told Pink News.
As the drive continued, the two ended up kissing in the back of the car. The driver, however, was not comfortable with that.
“Stop that please, I’m a Christian,” she said, according to Uber client.
“Her tone was stern but calm,” he said. “We immediately stopped and went silent.”
The Uber rider said that despite programming two stops for their Uber ride, both men decided to get off at the first stop. But according to the Londoner, his initial reaction of embarrassment soon turned to one of anger.
“Last night, I got an Uber home with a boy and had a smooch in the back, en route,” he tweeted. “Mid-smooch the @UberUK driver asked us to stop because she was a Christian. That’s not acceptable, right?!”
He then later shared with The Independent more frustration with the driver, “I wondered if she stoned adulterers in the street, ate shellfish, or reprimanded people for braiding their hair.”
“You can’t pick and choose what you believe in from the Bible. If you are going to take one thing literally you have to take everything literally. Otherwise, you are a bigot hiding behind a book.”
The upset London Uber client says that he then complained to Uber about his driver. According to the driver’s profile, she has worked for the company for two years and has a 4.93 rating. Despite this, a spokesperson for Uber did express concern for violation of the company’s anti-discrimination policy.
“What has been described is totally unacceptable,” an Uber spokesperson told The Independent. “Uber has a zero tolerance policy towards discrimination of any kind and we are currently investigating this incident.”
They added, “Any driver found to have violated this policy faces permanent deactivation from the app.”
All that said, there is some leeway for seeing it from the driver’s perspective. After all, he was kissing in the back of an Uber, which is essentially someone else’s car. There’s a bit of disrespect in that act. If the driver had simply said, “Don’t do that,” she would have been completely within her right. Also, the Uber cleint never explained the kiss in more detail than saying it was “a smooch.” As such, we don’t know if the kiss was more of a make out session or just a quick peck.
But no matter what, the driver should not have mentioned Christianity. That brought in the conversation of discrimination and homophobia covered by “religious freedom.” It also opens the argument of whether she would have been okay with a man and a woman kissing. In that vein, the Uber client is right to be mad.
In the end, the Uber client says the damage has been done and he will “think twice about using Uber again.”
“This could be an isolated incident, though I doubt that it is – they get so much bad press, but don’t do anything about (problems experienced by riders),” he reasoned. “I would really like an apology.”
Source: Pink News, The Independent
Writer’s Note: This is the opinion of one Instinct Magazine contributor and does not reflect the views of Instinct Magazine itself or fellow contributors.
He did something disrespectful to the drive, and She brought up her religion which was disrespectful to the rider, so it is a wash. They both should apologize to each other.