On Thursday October 20, 18-year-old Chanel Santini, a professional transgender model from Las Vegas was in Houstoncatching a ride from Bush Intercontinental Airport to her hotel when she was kicked out by her Uber driver for her sexual and gender preferences.
Sexually harassed
Early Thursday morningthe Uber driver picked Santini up from the airport and immediately began questioning her; starting with offending her by asking if she was a stripper. From that point on, the driver’s demeanor changed and he began disrespecting Santini with verbally abusive comments, telling her that she sounded like a man and that she had a body of a man.
Unfortunately, her ride didn't end at her proposed destination, but instead with the Uber driverkicking her outat a random gas stationand then chuckingher purse and luggage at herthrough the window. All due to her being transgender, she was nowstanding alonein the early morningstranded ina citycompletely unknown to her.
Uber’s anti-discrimination policy
KPRC Channel 2 News investigators contacted Uber on Sunday, October 23 reporting the case that left Chanel Santini distraught. Kayla Whaling, a representative of Uber, responded with, “We have a strict policy prohibiting discrimination of any kind on the Uber platform and will not tolerate the behavior that has been described here."
While being interviewed with Channel 2 News, Santinistated that she believes the Uber driver shouldn’tbe allowed employmentanywhere if he is going to be discriminatory towards people.
Bill Spencer, the live news reporter on this case, tracked down that specific Uber driver on Sunday night. The driver chose not to be interviewed and did not believe that he did or said anything wrong.
Transgender discrimination
Santini, along with many others, has worked extremely hard at becoming comfortable with who she is.
This is not the first case where transgenderwomen and men have been victims of discrimination. Every week the LGBTQ community faces discrimination for their sexual and gender identity preferences. These issues confronting Americaare continuing to divide its people.
