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Two Men Say Cabbie Ejected Them For Kissing

(CBS) -- Kicked out for a kiss?  A gay couple alleges an innocent peck nearly caused them to be ejected from their cab onto a rain-slicked Kennedy Expressway earlier this week.

Steven White and his boyfriend Matt McCrea were on their way from O'Hare Airport Thursday night, they tell CBS 2's Brad Edwards.

During the ride, McCrea "leaned over to look at something on the phone and then he leaned in to kiss me," White recalls.

McCrea says it was a closed-mouth kiss that lasted all of a second. It did not go over well with their cab driver, the two men say.

"He indicated that it was a public mode of transportation and we shouldn't kiss in his cab," White says.  "He pulled the cab over and stopped and wanted us to get out -- on the Kennedy."

"He could have asked us to please don't do that and handle the situation a lot differently than it was handled," McCrea says.

It was 11:30 p.m. The Park Ridge Police Department was called where the couple was dropped off at a grocery store on South Cumberland. The driver said the couple was "making sex," but police found no proof of the claim.

CBS 2 sought comment from Sun Taxi Associates about the driver in question -- to no avail.

The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, the city's overseer of cabs, said drivers have rights but cannot discriminate.

The department tells CBS 2 they'll investigate any claim against the driver. The couple plans to file a complaint.

"Rarely in my life have I ever wondered if I would have been treated differently if I were heterosexual," White says.  "That thought hardly ever crosses my mind, but last night I wondered."

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