Taxi Driver Allegedly Tells Gay Bar Patrons They’re Going To Hell

[FrodosPet]

Taxi Driver Allegedly Tells Gay Bar Patrons They’re Going To Hell

The controversy prompted Uber to sever its relationship with Portland Taxi Company.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/portland-taxi-homophobic-claims_us_57e960d2e4b08d73b832a8b7

9/26/2016 05:28 pm ET | Updated 2 hours ago

A local Oregon taxi company is feeling the heat after one of its drivers allegedly shouted homophobic epithets with a megaphone outside of a Portland gay bar last week.

Ty Raia told KATU News that he was visiting Portland’s Scandals bar on the night of Sept. 20 when a Portland taxi driver pulled up to the nightspot and began berating him and several friends. The driver, who has been identified in a second report from KATU News as Daniel Svodboda, allegedly told the group that they were going to hell because they are gay, but that he could help rescue them from their “difficult lifestyle.”

~ snip ~

Days after news of the incident broke, a Portland Taxi Company employee told KATU News on Sept. 23 that Svodboda was simply exercising his First Amendment rights. “If the gays don’t want to use our company, that’s better for us,” the employee said, according to the report.

But Portland Taxi Company owner Ken Karkhu told KATU News on Monday that Svodboda had been fired over the incident, saying, “I was in shock.” The earlier statement to KATU News, he added, was from a Portland Taxi dispatcher and did not reflect the company’s official policy.

~ snip ~

Most drivers, whether taxi or Uber, are good people.

But then, there are the jagoffs whose actions really hurt the personal transportation industry.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

1. I'm wondering if the first employee on the phone was Svoboda

Now tell me why is Uber using a taxi company anyhow?

[FrodosPet]

5. UberTaxi was one of their first services. older than UberX

It is only in a few cities.

Believe it or not, some people still prefer conventional marked taxis. And MANY people want features Uber does not offer, like the ability to order without a SmartPhone app, the ability to pay cash, and USA based CSRs that talk to them on the phone instead of misunderstanding or disregarding e-mails. I have a roof over my head and food in my fridge because Uber was not completely successful in taking us out.

Like I said, the vast majority of drivers in either marked taxis or Uber are good people, or at least they are smart enough to keep their opinions to themselves.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. He is some gay hater, all right...

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/05/man_scales_building_to_steal_g.html

[Warpy]

3. Those bar patrons need to do what I do when some Puritan sends me to hell

I grab their right hand and pump it up and down furiously in a Rotary Club kind of handshake and say "I knew god was dead, but I didn't realize you'd gotten his job. Congratulations!"

While they're trying to reboot I can make a clean getaway. Oh, and in this case, no tip.

[Eleanors38]

4. That guy ain't a dead god, he just smells that way.