Uber driver fired after kicking woman out of her car for being gay: 'I can reject any ride I want to'
A New Jersey Uber driver has been fired after she kicked a gay woman out of her vehicle after seeing her kiss her girlfriend.
Kristin Gauthier, a freelance photographer, climbed into an Uber in South Jersey, and kissed her girlfriend goodbye. However, her driver objected to the display of affection, and ordered Gauthier out of her vehicle.
In a now-viral post on her Facebook page, Gauthier shared details of the incident.
“This woman picked me up as my Uber driver. We took off. I gave my girlfriend a kiss on the cheek and she pulled the car over and said, ‘you need to get out of my car,’” Gauthier wrote.
When Gauthier asked the driver why, she responded that she “won’t have that in my car.”
“I asked what she was referring to. She said ‘you need to get out of my car because you are gay.’ #uber #illegal #trumphatewithlove,” Kristin wrote on Facebook.
In a video Gauthier captured with her cell phone which has now racked up over 17,000 views, she can be seen asking the driver if she was kicking her out of the car for being gay.
(Warning: The video contains language that is NSFW.)
“Yes, I am,” replied the driver, whose name was Cynthia.
The altercation soon escalated, with Cynthia yelling “Get out! Get out!” repeatedly while shaking her finger at Gauthier.
“What is wrong with you?” Gauthier responds, until the driver smacks the phone in her hand. When Gauthier said that she paid the driver for a service, Cynthia shot back, “I can reject any ride I want to.”
The driver’s statement is a direct violation of Uber’s community guidelines, which makes clear that any driver who refuses to take a rider to their final destination is violating the company’s rules. Uber also has a strict non-discrimination policy, which “prohibits discrimination against users based on race, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, gender identity, age or any other characteristic protected under applicable law.”
Yahoo Lifestyle reached out to Uber, who confirmed that the driver is no longer an employee of the company.
“Uber does not tolerate discrimination in any form and we have been in contact with this rider,” Uber told Yahoo in a statement. “We removed the driver’s access to the app as soon as we were made aware of this incident.”
Yahoo reached out to Kristin Gauthier for a comment but did not receive an immediate response.
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