Melbourne couple, Lucy Thomas and her girlfriend Chelsea Lang were subject to an antigay tirade and vicious harassment by their Uber driver over the weekend.
The women recorded part of the encounter, which ultimately cost the driver his job.
The incident took place on Saturday night when Thomas and Lang ordered an Uber to return home after a night out.
Thomas tweeted about the harassment and included the audio clip.
After being threatened by our @uber driver, my girlfriend and I stood up to him and recorded it. LISTEN: https://t.co/5IIdpBLSHJ #homophobia
— Lucy Thomas OAM 🌈 (@lucylockit_) June 5, 2016
She told Australian LGBT magazine the Star Observer that their driver, became enraged and abusive when he learned that his passengers were a lesbian couple.
It’s very wrong, but because we had long hair and were effeminate he saw us as straight women, and he hadn’t realized we weren’t until that point.”
The driver began to hurl antigay epithets at the women for the remainder of the trip to their home.
When they arrived, he continued to rant at them but refused to unlock the car doors and let them out, which is when the women began to record.
The couple then left the car and walked towards the front door, she said driver stayed idle, watching the pair walk inside.
Thomas later contacted Uber, which has since fired the driver and apologized to the couple.
THEY SACKED HIM 🙌🏽🌈✨ thanks @UberAus
— Lucy Thomas OAM 🌈 (@lucylockit_) June 6, 2016
We speak to @lucylockit_ & @chelsealang_ about their encounter with a homophobic Uber driver #TheProjectTV https://t.co/w6CRdYZKJd
— The Project (@theprojecttv) June 7, 2016
Thomas is the Chief Executive of Project ROCKIT, a national youth-driven movement against bullying and hate.
If it had been a couple of gay men it potentially been a lot different. The driver didn’t see us as a threat until he realised we weren’t straight.
The only reason we decided to share this is because we want the community to know these issues are still a problem… given the current climate in Australia, it’s now more important than ever that LGBTI people are visible along with the discrimination they face.”