WCCO is reporting that 3 gay men were kicked out of a cab on Friday night because two of them kissed. The driver apparently said that homosexuality violated his religious beliefs. This discrimination is against the law in Minnesota thanks to the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

This case appears to be one associated with Islam, but discrimination aganist GLBT people by taxi cab drivers is not limited to just one faith. Earlier this fall, my friends and I took a cab and the driver actually advocated violence against gay men, and even tried to get us to agree with him. He was from Florida and said that this type of gay stuff didn’t happen there. He also said he was a Christian.

And I’ve also heard from friends who were denied a cab ride during Twin Cities Pride from Muslim cab drivers.

It’s the responisbility of the cab companies to teach their employees about the law. Cab drivers cannot discriminate. Period.

If Minnesota continues down the road of allowing other peoples religious beliefs to be written into our Constitution, you better believe things like this will happen more often. It tells the landlords, cab drivers, and employers in Minnesota that GLBT people are less than straight people, and it’s our own government that will be sending the message.