11/05/2009
NYC Cabbie Who Kicked Gay Couple Out Afraid of Seeing Gay Sex
The New York Post talked to the cabbie who kicked a gay couple out of his cab for hugging. He said he was afraid the couple was going to have sex.
Said Medhat Mohamed: "I told them, 'OK, guys, if you want to stay away from each other,
I'm going to be very welcome to have you here and drive you to your
destination. They kept hugging and kissing. He was almost sitting on his lap. And I said, 'OK, guys, come on, I'm driving.' It doesn't matter to me if it's two guys
or a girl and a guy."
Mahmoud Elnefnawy, who runs the cab company, Astoria Express Management, defended his driver on the basis of religion: "in our religion, we can't handle that stuff. There's no kissing allowed in the cab. A man has to be a man."
Paul Bruno, the gay man who originally reported the incident, disputes Mohamed's version of events: "That never happened. He never expressed an interest in our safety or the cab's safety at all."
Posted 10:09 AM EST by Andy Towle in Discrimination, New York, News | Permalink
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I have full respect for the cab driver. Less respect now for the couple.
Posted by: Erik | Nov 5, 2009 10:23:58 AM
"Mahmoud Elnefnawy, who runs the cab company, Astoria Express Management, defended his driver on the basis of religion: 'in our religion, we can't handle that stuff. There's no kissing allowed in the cab. A man has to be a man.'"
Fuck you. You serve the public. Don't like it? Don't drive a cab.
Posted by: Eric | Nov 5, 2009 10:24:17 AM
Fuck you Erik. It's the same old "I was scared of the homos" defense.
He needs to lose his medallion and the cab company should be fined out the ass. This is NYC for Jeebus's sake! Let him go work at a corner stand if he's that much of a bigot.
Posted by: andy | Nov 5, 2009 10:28:46 AM
@ Eric... You say "Fuck you. You serve the public. Don't like it? Don't drive a cab."
Exactly. He drives a cab. He is not running a hotel where you can do what ever you want. As a taxicab driver he not only has to be concerned with the safety of the passengers, but also himself, and of those on the road around him. When you get in a cab, you FOLLOW THE RULES that are given to you by the cab driver. He ultimately is responsible for transporting two potentially inebriated individuals on the streets of Manhattan late at night, which you can imagine are a war zone.
I have hailed hundreds of cabs that refuse to even TAKE me where I needed to go because it wasn't on their route or they were off the clock. Guess what..it's stings, but you dust yourself off and you deal. It's their car. If they guys wanted to mess around they could have EASILY hopped aboard a NYC subway, or gotten a different cab.
Oh and let's not forget a fantastic detail to how this whole story broke in the very first place...Paul Bruno is an art director for the NY Post, which is the first place to have exposed this non-story.
Posted by: Marcus | Nov 5, 2009 10:33:09 AM
Everyone knows that ALMOST sitting on someone's lap means having sex is just about to happen.
Posted by: emjayay | Nov 5, 2009 10:34:25 AM
If you can't stand the heat / Then get off my street.
Hey Mahmoud and Mohamed...do you know where men wont hug and kiss each other? back in your contries...
Posted by: Felix | Nov 5, 2009 10:36:14 AM
@Marcus:
"I have hailed hundreds of cabs that refuse to even TAKE me where I needed to go because it wasn't on their route or they were off the clock. Guess what..it's stings, but you dust yourself off and you deal. It's their car. If they guys wanted to mess around they could have EASILY hopped aboard a NYC subway, or gotten a different cab. "
I assume you don't live in NYC, because it is ILLEGAL for an on-duty cabbie to refuse a fare to anywhere in the five boroughs. Any New Yorker knows this. If they stop, you get in, close the door, and THEN tell your destination.
As for your point about a cab not being a hotel: if you believe Bruno, they gave each other a hug. If you believe the cab driver, Bruno and his boyfriend were about to commence to fucking.
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, but the fact of the matter is, I'm going to side with the gay dudes rather than the prejudiced Muslims with values straight out of the 14th Century.
Posted by: Eric | Nov 5, 2009 10:38:15 AM
Damn, the cab driver wasn't cute at all. I've got to stop assuming that every man from North Africa, the Middle East, or the Asian Sub-Continent is going to look like Omar Sharif. Just stop it.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Nov 5, 2009 10:41:43 AM
Why are we believing the cab driver? Nope sorry. I think these guys might have been cuddling and might have been kissing but cuddling/kissing in the real world does not equate full blown "hot naked man sex."
I think he's trying to justify his bigotry (and bigotry hiding behind religion is still bigotry).
Posted by: Alex | Nov 5, 2009 10:44:31 AM
Backing him because of his religion? FUCK THEM BOTH! Since when are mosques handing out taxi medallions? My ass he would have kicked a straight couple out of the cab.
Posted by: MikeMick | Nov 5, 2009 10:48:16 AM
I like how people don't take the consideration of
public display of affection. where are our etiquette?
It is an awkward thing to witness.
What constitutes bad manners?
Why am I siding with the taxi driver?
Maybe because how society in U.S view me as
a foreigner first (even though I was born in the U.s.)
it get so old when you go to the gay bars and having people asking you " I thought muslim are not allow to be gay"
I'm biased here.
and what is with the xenophobia comments?
Posted by: Hussain | Nov 5, 2009 11:00:13 AM
and I do think these men need to start living and thinking in the 21st century.
Posted by: Hussain | Nov 5, 2009 11:09:18 AM
please. it had nothing to do with the guys behavior and everything to do with the driver's religious objections. the quote from the cab co owner outright confirms it. you think he would have thrown out a straight couple making out in the backseat?
Posted by: b mac | Nov 5, 2009 11:11:32 AM
and I do think these men need to live and think in the 21st century.
Sometime I do wonder what these guys think when they see me making out with a guy outside of the bars.
Posted by: Hussain | Nov 5, 2009 11:11:56 AM
If it's an awkward thing to witness, you shouldn't be driving a cab in New York City. I'm sure that two men kissing is probably the LEAST awkward thing this cabbie has ever witnessed in his cab in NEW YORK CITY, Muslim or not. Don't like it? Don't live in New York!
Posted by: Frank L | Nov 5, 2009 11:12:15 AM
@Hussain: Xenophonia, racism, sexism and religious intolerance are common problems in any oppressed group. And particularly right now, gays are feeling pretty oppressed.
That said, his discomfort is entirely a moot point. Sure, he has the right to kick them out if they actually engage in activity that is dangerous or illegal (and sex in a public place, like a cab, is illegal).
But they weren't, even by his account. Even if they were fondling each other through clothes, as uncomfortable and unpleasant as that would have been for the driver, he couldn't actually do anything about it, just as you can't do anything if you see it happening on the street.
Excessive PDA is unpleasant and socially frowned upon, but it's not forbidden. Even in a cab.
Posted by: Dave | Nov 5, 2009 11:13:15 AM
maybe I'm having hard understanding this because rarely I get discriminated as a homosexual. Maybe I'm just so used to people treating me as a foreigner in my our country.
oh well.
Posted by: Hussain | Nov 5, 2009 11:19:21 AM
I can not believe that anyone would believe the cab driver or the owner. I tried calling the company but no one is answering the phone.
My ex-lover is an Indian born Muslim who was not out to any of his family. I saw first hand the prejudice he faced, not just from his family and religion, but as a dark skinned man cabs often passed him by.
If those two bigots find it so distasteful they should move to middle America or even better, Palin's Alaska. They love Muslims up there.
Posted by: patrick nyc | Nov 5, 2009 11:21:42 AM
Kudos to the U.S. State Department for keeping as many of these people out of our country as possible. They are primitive in the extreme. The biggest problem with Muslim societies is that they NEVER discipline their male children in any way. Unless they're hanging them for being gay. The middle eastern Muslim cultures are by far the most primitive in the world! They make their women walk around covered in burlap bags just so the men won't accidently see bare ankles or arms and drive them into a sexual frenzy and rape women on the street. Their men have never been taught discipline, self-control, their culture has never had an enlightenment; they've never accepted the scientific method of inquiry; they are a primitive people --the most primitive of peoples.
Posted by: Dan Cobbb | Nov 5, 2009 11:27:55 AM
One way to find out. Get a camera and a straight couple and track the cab down, start a makeout session and see if he kicks them out.
Posted by: Uflyguy | Nov 5, 2009 11:29:22 AM
Also to think about, do you want to be a pedestrian walking down the sidewalk in the path of a cab driver that has to constantly look in his rear view mirror to see what the hell is going on in the seat behind him?
Posted by: Marcus | Nov 5, 2009 11:34:56 AM
DAN COBB,
You need a little European history lesson. If it weren't for Islamic Occupation(in Spain & Portugal) your "great Western tradition" wouldn't may not even exist. While the Medieval Church was trying to destroy the classic literary works of ancient Greece and Rome(which, I guess, form the foundation of European Cultures), the Muslims saved those ancient treasures. In other words, the Muslims were very instrumental in bringing your ancestors out of the Dark Ages into the Renaissance.
Without Islam coming to Europe (800 years ago) you'd be a barbarian.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Nov 5, 2009 11:50:39 AM
MARCUS did your parents drop you on your head? How often? You should have that looked into.
I don't think it is wise for pedestrians to walk in the path of any traffic, let alone taxi cabs, who are some of the worse drivers on our streets. I find it's rare to get into a cab, without the driver talking away on a cell phone.
ALL drivers should have their eyes and focus on the road, not on the back seat, cell phone, or any other distraction.
And to repeat ERIC's point, cab drivers are serving the public. Not their God. If they object they should find other work.
Last point, have you ever seen HBO's Taxi Cab Confessional? Some freaky shit goes on in cabs. Had my fair share of back seat foreplay. Too bad you have not, seems like you could use it, maybe help with the brain damage.
Posted by: patrick nyc | Nov 5, 2009 12:00:00 PM
Marcus, you obviously have never lived in NYC. Most cab drivers have seen it all and as long as you are paying the fare and not damaging the cab, they could care less.
Posted by: Chrissypoo | Nov 5, 2009 12:01:05 PM
@ Patrick NYC
Go to http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/drivrules.pdf
Scroll to Bullet point #9 on Page 38.
a New York City taxicab driver is 100% authorized to eject a passenger if they deem that the passenger is "disorderly or intoxicated". Mr. Bruno says it was a simple hug, the taxi cab driver says that is was verging on something disorderly. Regardless the taxicab driver has the final say. IT IS HIS CAB. A NYC cab driver is not a limousine chauffeur that is employed by the person in the backseat. They are employed by the city of NYC, and have to pass multiple exams to do what they do. Muslim or not, the taxicab driver has the final say. If Mr. Bruno had an issue with this, he could have written down the driver's medallion number, which is clearly placed in plain view and reported it to the NYC Taxi and Limousine commission or by calling 311, instead of going to his coworkers at the New York Post and spinning this into a tale of gay discrimination.
Posted by: Marcus | Nov 5, 2009 12:17:08 PM