Broadway Cab driver suspended after allegedly forcing same-sex couple out on I-84Oregon Live, July 28, 2013
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| (Shanako M. Devoll and her partner Kate Neal say a Broadway Cab driver ditched them on the side of a Portland freeway around midnight Thursday because of their sexual orientation.) |
"I was holding her hand and we kissed a couple of times in the back seat, minding our own business,'' Devoll said. "He made homophobic remarks that were very hurtful to us. We did not want to be in his cab.''
But the couple asked to be let off at a safe spot, Devoll said.
"This was an unsafe situation. We told him 'we can't get out on the freeway. We're not getting out on the freeway,' '' she recalled. "If people are working in customer service they need to be able to accept people for who they are.''
Neal said the driver was yelling homophobic remarks at them, and they offered to pay the fare of just under $40 if he'd just let them out at a safe spot, off an exit ramp of the freeway. But Neal said he refused.
"When this happened, you're in shock and you're not believing that it's happening,'' Devoll said. "There is no reasoning. You just need to get out of the situation.''
They ended up out of the cab, on the side of eastbound Interstate 84, just before 102nd Avenue.
Neal said their driver had radioed to another Broadway Cab driver, and a second cab pulled up alongside the freeway where they were let out. The second driver told the three on the side of the freeway to get into his cab, and they did, Neal said.
Neal said their driver had radioed to another Broadway Cab driver, and a second cab pulled up alongside the freeway where they were let out. The second driver told the three on the side of the freeway to get into his cab, and they did, Neal said.
There was some communication between the first driver and the second outside of the cab, and suddenly the second cab driver told the group in his back seat to get out, according to Devoll and Neal.
"That second cab driver came back and ejected us from his cab,'' Neal said.
