Richard Emery, former chair of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, is representing a married lesbian couple who claim they were discriminated against by a homophobic Uber driver.
The couple were picked up at JFK on Dec. 18 for the ride to their home on the Upper West Side.
“When we got into the car, I kissed my wife,” Sara, who didn’t want her last name made public, told me. “We were holding hands and I put my arm around her, but we weren’t making out.”
Sara believes the driver, who has a 4.85 rating, became upset as they discussed starting a family.
When they reached their building, the driver was rude. “He threw our bags to the ground aggressively.”
An hour later, Uber e-mailed Sara: “We are investigating a report from one of your recent trips. Your account has been placed on hold while we look into this.”
She tried for several days to get an explanation from Uber, but it wasn’t until I contacted the company that Sara’s account was restored.
An Uber spokeswoman told me, “Uber does not tolerate discrimination of any kind on the app. Our support team is looking further into this.”
“Outrageous,” Emery said. “They don’t say anything about what they will do to the driver now that they know it was LGBTQ discrimination.”
“It smells like this is the tip of the iceberg,” the lawyer said. “There could be systemic discrimination.”