Uber driver told gay couple stop kissing in her cab ‘because she is a Christian’
Finn Davies (R) claimed his Uber cab driver told he and his date to “stop kissing” because “she is a Christian”. (Denis Charlet/AFP/Getty/Finn Davies)
While in the back of an Uber in London, England, a gay man and his date shared a kiss only to be told to stop by their driver “because she is a Christian.”
As the cab rode along the cobblestone streets of the capital city, Finn Davies kissed a date he had met at a West End house party in the early morning of January 26.
But Davies told PinkNews that when he did so, his driver reportedly told them: “Stop that please, I’m a Christian”.
While the journey originally had two drop-off points for the two men, they decided to both get out of the vehicle at the first stop in Hackney, East London. Davies swiftly cancelled the second leg of the drive citing “anger and concern” over how the rest of the trip would go.
‘Her tone was stern but calm. We immediately stopped and went silent.’
“I had been at a house party near Marylebone for a friend’s birthday and had got talking to, and flirting with, a very handsome man who also happened to live East, like me,” Davies said.
“It was around 3am 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 pair boarded their car at 3:25am, making small talk throughout the trip with the driver who, according to her profile, has a 4.93 rating and has ferried for the ride-hailing company for two years.
“About five minutes before we were due to part ways, we kissed,” he claimed, “we were kissing for a minute or so before we heard the Uber driver say: ‘Stop that please, I’m a Christian’.
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“Her tone was stern but calm. We immediately stopped and went silent.
“I didn’t know what to do or say to the handsome man sat beside me. I felt embarrassed as though I’d done something wrong and I felt guilty that I’d upset the Uber driver.
“Minutes passed and those feelings turned to anger and concern at the thought of continuing my journey a further 20 minutes alone was making me feel increasingly uncomfortable.
“The handsome man took out his phone and wrote a note, ‘That was very awkward’, and passed it to me so that I could see it.
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“I took the phone from him and wrote: ‘I can’t stay in this taxi. I’m getting out with you’.”
As they reached their first drop-off point, Davies and the man both exited the cab and cancelled the second trip.
An Uber spokesperson told PinkNews: “What has been described is totally unacceptable. Uber has a zero tolerance policy towards discrimination of any kind and we are currently investigating this incident.
“Any driver found to have violated this policy faces permanent deactivation from the app.”
Drivers for ride-hailing app services are more likely to cancel journey with LGBT+ customers, a study last year suggested.
In a study of 3,200 journeys, they determined that the LGBT+ or ally “customers” were canceled on almost twice as much as those without a rainbow flag emoji by their profile display names.
