Chicago: Gay couple sue cab firm after driver evicts them for kissing
A gay couple are suing a cab firm in Chicago after a driver booted them out of the vehicle for kissing.
Matthew McCrea, 30, of Chicago, and Steven White, 29, of West Hollywood, California, say they had exchanged a brief kiss in the back of a Sun Taxi cab when the driver pulled over on a busy road on a rainy night and told them to get out.
The Chicago Tribune reports the incident occurred in May. The driver has since been fined by the city and fired by his company.
Mr McCrea and Mr White say they took their complaint to the Illinois Department of Human Rights. The complaint asks for unspecified compensation.
“We’re doing this because what happened to us isn’t right, and we want to make sure other people, if they find themselves in this situation, they know it’s not OK,” said Mr McCrea.
The complaint, which was filed by gay advocacy group Lambda Legal, said that after the couple refused to exit the cab, the driver began driving “recklessly” until he stopped in a store parking lot. The couple refused to leave until police arrived.
When an officer questioned the driver, Jama Anshur, he said Mr McCrea and Mr White had been “making sex” – which the pair strenuously deny. The officer let Mr Anshur drive off, and waited with the couple until they found another cab.
The driver was fined $1,540 (£943) by Chicago’s cab-regulatory agency over the incident, according to the complaint, and Sun Taxi fired him.
