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Grab has temporarily suspended a GrabHitch driver pending investigations into a passenger complaint involving abusive messages about LGBTQ positions.
The distraught passenger took to Reddit on Thursday (Nov 12) with a post about brushing up against homophobia while booking a ride under Grab’s carpooling social service.
Under the identifier Chronocycle, the Redditor wrote that a driver accepted a transport request, but before reaching the pick-up point, he sent forceful messages to the passenger.
According to Chronocycle, the driver must have somehow seen his passenger’s profile photo, which contained a banner in support of the Ready 4 Repeal movement to abolish Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code.
Article 377A says: “Any male person who, in public or in private, commits or incites to commit, or seeks or attempts to obtain the commission by a man of any act of gross indecency with another man, shall be punished imprisonment of up to 2 years “.
An article published in The Straits Times in November 2019 included a mention that Parliament’s position is that Section 377A will not be proactively enforced.
However, the host made his stance against the LGBTQ community quite clear.
“I was stunned and could not respond except to cancel the trip. I did not hire him at all, but I felt sick to my stomach,” wrote the Redditor.
“There was no way I was going to board a hostile driver’s car, who would at least harass me, at worst, potentially put me in danger.”
Since then, the passenger has submitted a report about the incident to Grab.
“My initial emotional response to [the driver’s] The message was funny, but it soon gave way to pain. As a queer Singaporean, we are forced to accept these microaggressions as we go about our daily lives, “wrote Chronocycle, adding that such acts of homophobia” have a way of happening when you least expect it. ”
Temporarily suspended
In response to inquiries from AsiaOne, Grab assured that investigations into the incident are underway.
“The safety of our users is important to us and we have a zero tolerance policy for those who have displayed indecent behavior, harassment or abuse of any kind on our platform,” a Grab spokesperson told AsiaOne.
“We are aware of this incident and have temporarily suspended the GrabHitch driver while we investigate the situation.”
On Reddit, the passenger confirmed that Grab responded to the complaint and that the driver was temporarily suspended. Apparently this was after Grab initially banned the driver from the rig.
According to Redditor, Grab will schedule a face-to-face conversation with the driver and educate him on the incident.
“Depending on the outcome of that conversation, we will decide if we should allow you to continue driving with GrabHitch,” Grab told Chronocycle.
