The clerk and the taxi driver, part two

Yesterday I blogged about a clerk in Brookstone’s who was fired for harassment when he called a lesbian worker “deviant,” among other things.  Another incident involving homophobia in the workplace also made recently made news.  This time the workplace was a taxi in New York City.

Here’s what we know. A gay couple flagged down the cab of Medhat Mohamed.  Two blocks later, the driver ordered the men out of the car.  Both Mohamed and the men agree that the couple was hugging in the back seat.  Mohamed claims he would have done the same thing to a heterosexual couple and that the issue was his own distraction, not homophobia; it was all about safety.  He also expresses concern that he didn't know how far the couple would go.  The couple insists that it was the fact that they were two males that led to their eviction.

What’s been especially interesting about the incident is how the right wing is using it.  I must say that it surprises me that some of the same people who have been anti-immigrant are now the empathetic spokespeople for an Egyptian immigrant who they claim was persecuted by the “gay mafia.”  One blogger went so far as to say that this “mafia” wants to fire a hardworking taxi driver during the “Obama Depression.”  A New York Post headline read, "Hack halts cab nookie and now he’s screwed?!" Other postings claimed that the two men were having sex in the taxi, something even the taxi driver denies.

But here’s what may surprise some folks about both stories: many gay bloggers and readers are divided as to what should be done to the clerk and the taxi driver.  If there is a “Gay Mafia,” I certainly can’t find it.  Opinions have ranged from “ignore it” to “fire them.” Far from being a mass persecution, some of the LGBT blogs I have read express deep reservations about firing either the clerk or the taxi driver.

Certainly taxi drivers can’t pick and choose who they accept for rides.  And we’ll never know what was really going on in the mind of the driver. What I do know is that the incident needs to be addressed.  In the best of all worlds this would not involve the firing of a taxi driver, but growth, understanding, and a clear message that bias can’t be tolerated when on the job.  Of course, we don't live in the best of all worlds, and I don't know what the driver is willing to do to make amends with the men and the community of which they are a part.

Mohamed has stated that the incident had nothing to do with homophobia and that “it is about them, not me.”  In fact, it stopped being about all three of them when the story was hijacked to make political points with right wing.  Read one post on a conservative blog, "In Obama’s brave new world, this cabby will be brought up on a hate crime.”

Thanks to Kilian Melloy of EDGEBoston for some of the details in this blog.