Uber driver ‘dragged gay customer down busy street’
Alex Majkowski and Taray Carey were allegedly abused and attacked during an Uber ride (taray carey/facebook)
An Uber driver allegedly dragged a gay customer along a busy street in New York, after telling him and his husband that they “would be beheaded” where he came from.
Taray Carey was left injured and shaken after spending half a block clinging to the Uber taxi along East 4th Street in the East Village on Tuesday night (November 27), he told WNBC.
The driver launched into a hate-filled rant, calling Carey and his husband Alex Majkowski “faggots” after they hugged each other in the back seat, the couple has claimed.
Taray Carey was dragged half a block through the East Village, he says (Taray Carey/Facebook)
Carey said he asked the Uber driver: “‘What’s your problem?’ and he’s telling us in his country we would be beheaded and left for dead.”
While they were stopped at a red light, the gay couple attempted to get out, but Majkowski was unable to do so and Carey was left hanging on, partway outside the car, as the driver took off before he had completed his exit.
“He floored it and gunned forward, dragging me half a block down East 4th Street,” said Carey.
Majkowski, still in the car, pleaded for the pair to be allowed to leave, recalling: “I said: ‘Let me out, let me out, let me out,’ just over and over until he stopped.”
Alex (left) and his partner Taray Carey (right), who was left injured after the Uber ride (wnbc)
Uber said that the driver has been taken off its app, adding: “What’s been reported is very concerning to us and Uber does not tolerate any form of discrimination.”
Police are investigating the incident.
In August, New York City launched an initiative to tackle the growing problem of discrimination by taxi and private hire vehicle drivers.
Uber drivers have history of targeting gay passengers
In June, a lesbian couple in New York was allegedly thrown out of an Uber car in New York for kissing.
Emma Pichl and her girlfriend Alex Iovine were allegedly thrown out of an Uber for kissing (Emma Pichl/facebook)
In a shocking video posted on Facebook, the two women—Emma Pichl, 24, and her girlfriend Alex Iovine, 26—could be seen being told by driver Ahmad El Boutari that their kiss was “illegal.”
The couple claimed El Boutari saw them sharing a quick moment and stopped his car before forcing them out and calling the women “disrespectful.”
Gay fiancés Randall Magill, 28, and Jose Chavez, 26, were also allegedly thrown out of an Uber for kissing, with the pair told to leave the car in Houston, Texas, in January after they went in for a quick peck on the lips.
Before leaving them on the side of the road at around 4am, Chavez said the driver told them: “I can’t take you no more.”
Randall Magill and Jose Chavez were told to leave an Uber in Texas (instagram/randall magill)
“He was like: ‘I’m going to have to drop you guys off,’ and we said: ‘That’s fine.’ We didn’t want to fight back.
“I was upset,” Chavez added. “I’ve never been told not to kiss or anything.”
And earlier this month, Matthew Marston from Orlando, Florida, said that an Uber driver offered to perform a sex act on him in exchange for a free ride.
Marston, who cancelled his ride to work and was hit with a later-refunded $5 fee, said he felt “uncomfortable” and “shocked” by the incident.
