NJ Uber Driver Admits to Kicking Gay People Out of The Car Because They are Gay

                              

By Brianna Kudisch | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

An Uber driver kicked two Camden County women out of her car for being gay, according to the couple. One woman recorded the incident and posted it on her personal Facebook page.

Kristin Michele and Jenn Mangan were in an Uber on their way to a Zac Brown Band concert in Camden on Friday night when Michele leaned over and gave Mangan a kiss on the cheek, they said.

The driver then immediately told the women to get out of the car, Michele said. 

“I said ‘I don’t understand.’ She said ‘I can’t ride with that. You kissed her,’” Michele said. “She said ‘I won’t have that.’”

Michele started recording a video right after that, in which she asks, “Are you kicking me out because I’m gay?” and the driver responds, “Yes, I am. Yes. Get out.”

The driver said she was a Christian woman and “didn’t believe in that,” according to Michele, who then began filming.

Mangan said she got out of the car right away while Michele continued arguing with the driver. The woman threatened to call the police, which Michele encouraged, but the driver never did, she said.

“Eventually it was obvious this wasn’t getting resolved, so I just got out of the car,” Michele said, after about five minutes of back-and-forth.

The women, who are both from Oaklyn, were left on a side street about half a mile from their home, so they walked home and took a train to the concert, Mangan said. The ride would have been about 15 minutes to the concert venue, she said.

The women reached out to Uber and heard back from the company, which said they would handle the incident but didn’t specify what would happen, according to Mangan.

Uber did not immediately respond to an email regarding the incident. 

“[The video] blew up pretty quick last night,” Mangan said. The video, which was posted Friday afternoon, had 13,000 views and over 300 comments as of Saturday afternoon.

“[It’s] quite ridiculous that people are still like that,” she added. But since posting the video, Mangan said the support has been “absolutely incredible.”

“People have been nothing but supportive of our lifestyle since we started dating and they continue to support us,” she said.