New York Cabbie Fined $15,000 for Telling Lesbian Couple not to Kiss
A New York judge has put a high price on love and ordered a local cab driver to pay $15,000 for telling a lesbian couple to stop kissing in his taxi, the New York Daily News reported.
Administrative Law Judge John Spooner last month ruled that driver Mohammed Dahbi had violated a city human-rights law when he told the women he would not keep going if they continued to show their affection, the newspaper added.
TV producer Christina Spitzer and her girlfriend, actress Kassie Thornton, said they barely exchanged a peck in the back of the cab they were taking from Columbus Circle in Manhattan to Sunset Park in Brooklyn, according to the New York Post. Dahbi, however, challenged the women's account, insisting they had been kissing "heavily" and "touching all over each other" -- including "on the chest and the breast."
His lawyer, Ali Najmi, told the newspaper that his client intervenes when back-seat makeout sessions become too much of a distraction -- regardless of his customers' sexual orientation. But according to the couple, the cabbie's attitute was clearly discriminatory.
"Keep that for the bedroom or get out of the cab," he shouted during the trip, the women testified.
Eventually, Spitzer and Thornton deboarded in Chelsea, confronted Dahbi about his comments and then got into a dispute about paying the fare, the New York Post detailed. That is when the driver referred to them as "b**ches," "wh**es" and using other expletives, according to official documents.
To testify before Spooner, the couple -- scheduled to wed in June -- flew to New York from California. Spitzer and Thornton insisted that they pursued the case as a matter of principle and given that, under New York State Law, public and private businesses are prohibited from refusing service based on sexual orientation, according to the Inquisitr.
Each of them was awarded $5,000 for emotional distress, and Dahbi now also owes the city a $5,000 fine; the cabbie will have to attend anti-discrimination training.
"Most people would just stop and not consume their lives with this anymore. But for us, it affected our entire relationship," Thornton told the newspaper. "We had just started dating, and we wanted to follow through. If everyone backed out of doing what was right, nothing would change," the actress added.
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