Gay Couple Who Claims They Were Booted From Cab For Kissing Sues Taxi Company
By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 28, 2014 9:00PM
A same-sex couple who claimed they were tossed from a cab last year for simply sharing a kiss has filed a lawsuit against the taxi company that employed the cabbie who was offended by the couple’s public display of affection.
Matthew McCrea and Steven White filed the lawsuit against Sun Taxi in Cook County Circuit Court Monday. They claim that after McCrea leaned in and gave White a simple, short kiss the driver, Jama Anshur, began switching the taxi’s cabin lights on and off and pulled over on the Kennedy, where he asked them to exit his cab. When they refused, Anshur allegedly began “driving recklessly, swerving into traffic,” before he exited the Kennedy at Cumberland and stopped at a grocery store in Park Ridge to wait for police. Anshur told Park Ridge police McCrea and White were “making sex” in his taxi.
McCrea and White filed a complaint last year with the Illinois Department of Human Rights against Sun Taxi and Anshur, who is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Anshur was fined $1,540 by the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection over the incident and Sun Taxi fired him shortly after.