Couple Gets Kicked Out of a Taxi For Hugging

Wow, today is turning out to be a bad day for the gays. Not only did Maine's gay couples lose the right to marry, but apparently in New York, they're now being denied the right to hug. What's next? An Alabama statute banning high-school a-capella groups?

As the New York Post reports, yesterday night vigilante cab driver Medhat Mohmad evicted Paul Bruno and his partner from the back of his cab, just two blocks after picking them up. The two men, on their way home from a party, were tossed to the curb after their behavior enraged the driver when they embraced in the backseat.

"Hugging is not allowed!" The driver allegedly yelled, in either a citation of the most obscure line in the "Taxi Cab Bill of Rights" or a blatant act of homophobia. (Probably the second one.)

But beyond that, this event raises a few questions. First is an obvious one - how hardcore can a hug possibly get in the back of a cab? Were they just sitting next to another, one's bro-ish arm over the other's shoulder? My second query is more succinct: are you fucking serious? You are a New York City cab driver, working nights, and you have the energy to be offended by two dudes hugging? Really?

Let's hope to God the poor man arrived in New York recently enough to have missed Halloween last weekend, when the streets were packed with half-naked youngsters like my friend Ryan, dressed as Lady-Gaga-In-Bubbles . This guy's cab would have been screeching to a stop to chuck people out every other block, all night long.