Lesbian couple booted out of Uber for kissing on the backseat
It was just a ‘very fast peck-kiss’ one of the women told a local newspaper but the driver said it was not allowed and disrespectful.
Alex Iovine and Emma Pichl.
A lesbian couple who have been dating for two years were booted out of an Uber taxi in New York on Saturday for kissing.
Alex Iovine (26) and Emma Pichl (24) left a friend’s birthday celebration at a bar in Brooklyn at about 5pm and hailed an Uber to take them to another party in Manhattan.
Ms Pichl told The Post: “We were sitting on opposite sides of the seat. At one point we leaned over and peck-kissed, very fast.”
Shortly afterwards the taxi driver, Ahmad El Boutari, pulled over and said: “I don’t want to argue with you, just get out of my car. You can’t do that in the car.”
“Kissing is not not illegal,” one of the woman replied. “Why are we not allowed to kiss in an Uber?”
“It’s disrespectful,” the driver replied.
The couple filmed the altercation on a mobile phone and posted it on YouTube.
Uber has apologised to the women and withdrawn Mr Boutari’s licence saying it doesn’t tolerate discrimination.
A spokesman for the taxi regulator in New York said: “There is a list of circumstances that are grounds for refusing service to a passenger and what happened is definitely not one of them.
“It’s 2018 in New York City and this isn’t the way we live any more.”
