Gay Couple Ejected From Chicago Bus For Kissing

A gay Chicago couple says they were booted from a public bus for kissing.

The Windy City Times reports that Christopher Buchanan and Derrell Hughes are considering filing a complaint against the Chicago Transit Authority after being asked to leave a bus by a driver who used homophobic slurs.

On October 22, the couple boarded the bus after leaving an afternoon event at the Broadway Youth Center. Buchanan says the pair was holding hands and kissing when a middle-aged woman complained to the driver.

Buchanan says the driver told the couple there had been a complaint and they needed to get off his bus.

“He was really in my face,” Buchanan tells the Windy City Times. “He said ‘you bitches need to get off the bus…I can’t stand fags.’“

When the pair refused to get off, the driver called the police, who told the driver that kissing did not violate the law.

Buchanan thinks the two were targeted because they were black and gay. “Where does it state on CTA we can’t kiss on the bus?” Buchanan said. “Straight people kiss on the bus all the time.”

The couple has filed a complaint with the CTA and are considering legal action.

A similar situation happened in New York in July when singer Ari Gold and his boyfriend were told to move to the back of the bus because they were holding hands.

In other Chicago public transportation news, a transgender employee is suing the Metra after being denied the right to use the men’s bathroom and locker room at work, even though he in the process of transitioning and is listed as male on his state-issued identification card. Read more at the Windy City Times.