RightRides provides women, and LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer] individuals free rides home on Friday and Saturday nights from 11:59 p.m. to 3 a.m. in all boroughs, except Staten Island, Reid explained.
Here's a screenshot from the organization's website:
Could you imagine if someone started a free car service that only picked up straight men? There'd be protests by NOW and a parade of rainbow flags past their house. How do these fine folks determine who is gay and who isn't? They don't service Jackson Heights, which has the most "LGBTQ" in Queens (BTW: when did they add the Q onto the end of that?). And what kind of stupidity is it to say "many women and LGBTQ people don't have the extra funds to take a taxi" when they apparently have enough money to spend the night on the town (note this service is only available on Fridays and Saturdays)? Does assault not occur on any other nights of the week? 
Back in my barhopping days, I made sure to reserve enough of my spending cash to either get a cab home or split the cost of tolls and parking with the designated driver for the evening. Furthermore, of all the women I know who live throughout this vast city of ours, I don't know any that has gotten her ass kicked coming home from a bar. But then again, people who grow up here tend to develop street smarts and common sense and are not the target demographic of RightRides.And if you're thinking, well it is silly, but to each his own, this group is a registered 501c3 charity and is therefore eligible for and has applied for government grants. If they want to make sure a vulnerable population is protected, perhaps they could provide armed escorts for livery cab drivers or low-income people who have to work late.
70 comments:
It's amazing how certain groups can not only get away with reverse discrimination, but flaunt the fact and get accolades for it.
"Does assault not occur on any other nights of the week?"
Even if we accept a gender /orientation discriminatory service like this, why the hell would they only operate Fri and Sat, obviously catering to those out drinking or partying?
I remember reading recently of a Bronx woman who was sexually assaulted on her way home from working a late night shift. This was during the week. Don't you think she was more in need of a 'Right Ride' than someone out getting wasted?
So what? Would you prefer they not exist? They could do a better job I'm sure, but I am a bartender's daughter and I know that drunk women get raped.
A male friend of mine confided an ugly situation to me. When he was a boy, he and three friends encountered a drunk, drugged woman in the street. The men took the women into the car and proceeded to rape her.
My friend, no hero, bailed and later learned that the thugs brought the woman to her home afterwards and were even thanked by the father for helping her.
When drunk men are regularly raped and when straight men are regularly the victims of gay bashing such a service will be entirely unnecessary.
In the meantime, tell your children to stay sober, always keep "pin money" available, and leave parties and bars early or skip many of them entirely.
I guess the solution would be to create a competing charity car service, just to drive the sado-rapists and queer bashers around town to level the playing field.
Ain't life in the Apple great we have all kinds.
Not to mention the fact that the charity doesn't serve Jackson Heights because they don't have anyone suitable in the community ready to drive.
If the people of Jackson Heights want to expand this to Jackson Heights, they can step up to the plate with funds and good drivers as volunteers.
Originally this service covered a very small slice of the city and it expanded as funds and volunteers became available.
ANONYMOUS #3: Brava, ma'am.
The rest of you: what the hell bug do you have up your collective ass? Please kill it. These people saw that there was a problem and stepped in to try to help solve it. They're serving a specific, somewhat endangered, population; that's their mission. What part of that do you take issue with?
I'm a real estate broker in Queens and if I started a Dept. to only help white, married couples I would be out of business in a heartbeat. Laws are laws and should be enforced across the board.
I take issue with the fact that tax dollars will be allocated to getting people of means home from their drinkfests. This isn't for those of us who know what the real NYC is like, this is for the newbies that just moved here and think this is fantasyland. The founder pretty much was quoted as saying that in the linked NY Press article. The point is, instead of teaching people to act smart, we are teaching them to be dependent. It used to be that alcoholic socialization was something you did if you had enough money to do it; now it's some kind of right. I also agree with #3, "tell your children to stay sober, always keep "pin money" available, and leave parties and bars early or skip many of them entirely." There should be a group doing THIS. Why isn't there?
With a continuing influx of middle-class people into fashionable but still rough-around-the-edges areas like Bushwick and Bed-Stuy, newcomers' perceptions that crime is swelling may come as a surprise to longtime residents, for whom violent crime has long been a hazard of everyday life. And if violence against women in North Brooklyn is indeed on the rise, one factor might be the potentially volatile combination of young, naive and often well-to-do artists and professionals moving into areas where sporadic and dramatic incidents of violence are more likely.
"Middle class people" and "young, naive and often well-to-do artists and professionals" should have enough money to pay for a cab.
Yes, the key word there is "naive".
I guess the personal responsibility angle is lost to all y'all. Don't get smashed and then walk the streets or ride the train and there won't be a need for this service. You don't need to be a bartender's daughter to know that drunk women get raped. And getting drunk and putting one's self into a vulnerable situations is entirely avoidable. When one of my friends has a little too much, the rest of those she is socializing with always make sure she gets home safe. I have to wonder what the friends of these women and gays are like.
"They're serving a specific, somewhat endangered, population"
No, I digress. There is no shortage of naive morons in this city. Being visibly drunk makes you prone to violence and bad judgment. Why don't they teach this in school when they give the condom demo?
There is no such thing as "reverse discrimination" and "reverse racism". Discrimination is discrimination no matter who is discriminated against.
I wonder will they refuse a ride to a gay guy that's not feminine and flamboyant and looks just like a regular straight guy?
Wow, Crappy, you have stooped to new lows. You really have no clue, do you?
No, read it again. Sounds to me like the newbies that move to nabes that are rough around the edges are the ones that have no clue and put themselves in danger. Crappy's just calling it as he sees it.
Hey this is all part of promoting the culture of victimization. We have been accustomed to everyone crying that they are victims of something - racism, sexism, homophobia. Anything that most American-born males are not.
Limiting rides to certain segments of society because "they don't have the money" when they most certainly do is just part of the new wave of liberalism. You're not supposed to question how they had enough money to get trashed in a bar but not enough to get home. Shame on you, Crapster.
Anything that delivers anyone out of the hands of thugs is something that I can get behind. And yes, prudence first, last, always, but we will always have idiot children, why let them become dead children?
I'm straight" (hic...belch...fart)
and I drank and ate too much.
I can hardly walk a straight (LOL) line.
Will this "car service" refuse to pick me up because I'm not gay, lesbian, trans gender, etc. or didn't tie one on in a "to-the-trade-only" bar?
That's the point.
And no 501C3 status for them if they discriminate.
I believe it's against IRS rules.
Other than that...it's all fine with me!
They don't pick up men because the drivers are all female volunteers so far as I know. Again, when you force them to dissolve the service, be proud that you have enabled a mugger to get another victim.
Sorry, but women are at much higher risk of being attacked even when they are stone sober, let alone drunk.
My mother's head was split by a junkie when she walked home from Mid-night mass in 1964, she walked home with a profusely bleeding scalp wound and passed out on the floor as she opened the door.
I wish someone had offered her a cab ride. Muggers should burn in hell.
Those whole gay thing is because the machine wants them under the tent - they are (as a group) articulate, have money, and know how to cause trouble for those that oppose them.
So now they are accepted and public resources (meaning your taxes) will be channeled in their direction.
Remember that the next time your kids dont have a park and have to play in the street.
Remember that the next time your kids are doubled up in school.
Remember that the next time your kids get sick and have to wait 8 hours in an ER.
Remember this little service (that in one form or another takes your taxes) to accomodote activities that thumb its nose at your religion - be it Orthodox Jewish, Roman Catholic, or Muslim.
Do we have to list these activities?
The tweeding picks.
Or should I say tweeded pricks.
"My mother's head was split by a junkie when she walked home from Mid-night mass in 1964, she walked home with a profusely bleeding scalp wound and passed out on the floor as she opened the door.
I wish someone had offered her a cab ride. Muggers should burn in hell."
Why didn't she call for one? Why did she walk home by herself? Why didn't anyone in your family pick her up?
No money, no car, four children and lack of awareness that the place she had lived in safely for three decades had turned ugly.
Drunken reveler's are admittedly a low priority for city money, but the majority of the funding comes from private companies and individuals.
People volunteer their time for this also. I have a feeling that some of you guys have a problem with it if the city doesn't give them a dime and if the only service they get is a friend to walk them home.
There should be no such thing as "politically correct" discrimination, but especially not where public money is involved.
"lack of awareness"
Thank you. You hit the nail on the head. Midnight mass is over after 1am, and I'm sure even way back in the 1960s, women knew not to walk home alone at this hour.
Straight people don't get their heads bashed in for committing the horrible crime of existing. That's why this service doesn't pick them up. Are you upset that you don't get a free coat from a coat drive because you're not homeless? Are food banks "reverse discriminating" against the well fed? This organization is providing a service to a group who needs it. I really don't understand the outrage and criticism.
As for how they tell if you're gay or not, I doubt many straight people ask to be picked up at gay bars.
Maybe if you had posts every now and then about hate crimes committed in Queens you would be more sympathetic. Last October this guy was beaten within inches of his life in College Point, but the story seemed to escape Crappy's notice: NYC Gay Man in Coma After Savage Beating; 1 Suspect at Large.
"Straight people don't get their heads bashed in for committing the horrible crime of existing."
Yes, they do. ALL people coming home at unreasonable hours are vulnerable to getting mugged. It's when most muggings take place. And there is no criteria for the gay people using this service to only get picked up at gay bars.
One more thing: Two suspects nailed in College Point hate crime.
Oops! Someone has egg on his face.
"All people coming home at unreasonable hours are vulnerable to getting mugged."
I was held up with a six inch knife to my throat on Convent Avenue in the late '60's while going to the CCNY library - IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. My head in the air on that beautiful Spring day, listening to the birds singing, with the gentle zephyrs wafting across my brow.
Pay attention, schmucks.
I apologize. That post wasn't tagged with "gays," which this post is.
That said, I still wish you would admit that women, gays, lesbians, and transgendered people face more dangers than other people walking home at night. It goes back to my coat drive analogy: Sure everyone could use a free coat, but it should first go to those who need it more.
I also doubt that they would turn anyone away for not seeming gay enough. If you call, you're probably assumed to be gay. I don't think there are very many straight guys who would be willing to call a gay car service.
"We're here. We're queer. Get used to it."
LGBTQFODRITDNL (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer, Friend of Dorothy, Rainbow in the Dark, Nathan Lane.)
I guess Right Rides wouldn't have helped the gay guy in College Point. Community patrols might be more effective in preventing attacks.
Once again, they're more at risk if they don't take precautions. Spending all your money at the bar so you don't have enough to get you home is using poor judgment.
And it's not a "gay car service", it's a 501C3 charity that started out only serving women, supposedly because they make less than men, then extended to gay men, supposedly for the same reason. Even though the articles detail well to do artsy types who don't know street smarts. If you're a straight guy who wants to go out and knock a few back watching the game, you're on your own getting yourself back home - it doesn't matter if you are a minimum wage worker at Wendy's.
If they dropped you off at the projects, do they escort you up to your apartment? Who escorts them back? Hell, how many of these crimes happen in stairwells and elevators?
HOW do you know really who is gay or who is not? - They are relying on the integrity of the person they are escorting home - how idealistic can you get?!!!
Maybe they go only to gay clubs . . .
HOW do you know really who is gay or who is not?
I guess they only give rides to stereotypical gays of the effeminate and flamboyant type. I have some gay friends and just by looking at them, you can't tell that they're gay. Guess they can't use the gay car service.
Even though for years we have been told that you can't judge who is gay and who isn't just be appearances, this is apparently what these folks do. So it's ok for them to do it but not the general population. That's just so hypocritical.
"I guess the solution would be to create a competing charity car service, just to drive the sado-rapists and queer bashers around town to level the playing field."
So, if you are not LGBT or a woman, you are a 'sado-rapist or queer basher'? Maybe, if you are taking government scratch, you shouldnt discriminate on the basis of gender or sexual orientation.
"They don't pick up men because the drivers are all female volunteers so far as I know."
Can someone explain that to me.
Unless they've changed their criteria, that's exactly who they use--female volunteers.
The service started as women protecting women in a limited area lo these many years ago long before these areas became hot.
Found this on the website:
"Studies show that women and those in the Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Queer Gender Non Conforming (LBTQGNC) community"
God the acronym is going to be longer than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious soon.
Navigators are in a driving team with a Driver (one of you must identify as female) and you must attend an Orientation session.
"Identify" as a female? So you don't actually have to be a female. Now I'm more afraid of this car service than of taking the A train home at 1am.
After they drive you home, they'll make you alphabet soup.
Anonymous said: "After they drive you home, they'll make you alphabet soup."
It's so silly it's like a Marx Bros. movie:
Pinkie roars off on the motorcycle without his passengers in the sidecar. Groucho is shouting from the street "If you run out of gas, get ethyl. If Ethel runs out, get Mabel." Firefly jumps out of the sidecar and proclaims: "Well, it certainly feels good to be back again!"
The service itself doesn't bother me, but the implied double standard does.
Notice too that they are registered as a CHARITY - so they are getting some sort of income from this.
They also applied for a grant which means they are hoping WE pay for their transportation home from the bars.
I am a volunteer with RightRides and can say that we do not exist solely to drive drunk people home after a night out--most of the people I drive home are either working late at a bar or restaurant or simply hanging out at a friend’s place. Almost everyone I drive home tells us that they often feel unsafe and thanks us for meeting an unmet need in the city. Unfortunately, often they tell us that they or someone close to them was mugged, assaulted, or harassed on their way home.
Anyway, do drunk people deserve to get assaulted? Being less than responsible or taking risks shouldn't give others free reign to do whatever they want to you. It is interesting that so many people here are quick to call RightRides naive, as victim-blaming is an incredibly naive response to violence and crime in the community.
The nights and areas that are in included in the service reflect what it is able to handle right now with the number of volunteers. As volunteer help and funding increase, the service expands; it is that simple. As for focusing on women and LGBTQ people, it is about helping those who are most at-risk. Organizations that focus on specific communities exist everywhere at every level, and it has nothing to do with discrimination. I know the director/founder of RightRides personally, and believe me--if she had the resources to help every single person out there, she would work every waking hour and more to do so.
This ignorant article is another frustrating example of how some people would prefer to expend energy criticizing others' positive efforts rather than contribute anything worthwhile themselves.
Okay hun, the article and the group's website don't say RR caters to people who work late. They say it caters to people who want to have a nightlife. People who moved to NYC and think it's Topeka Kansas. Newsflash: It ain't. And you have no idea what people in this forum do to better their communities. Another example of how the group discriminates based on stereotypes.
It's about helping YOURSELVES.
Which would be fine BUT with MY money? A Federal or State grant would be afterall from taxpayers.
I don't believe that you are more vulnerable than anyone else is at 3:00 am in NYC. Granted the elderly or the very young would be the MOST vulnerable anywhere - any time.
Travel in groups like the rest of us or take a cab door to door - again - like the rest of us.
Friends helping friends would be a good thing. You're only singling out who YOU think needs protection (which is yourself in your eyes).
And it is NAIVE of you to hold others of your gender or sexual orientation in such high esteem that you believe THEY will not victimize YOU or anyone else. Unless you are traveling in a tight social circle - you DON'T know who you will be picking up or sharing a car with.
AND of course if you ARE traveling in a tight social circle - you truly have NO right to a grant to escort you and your friends from one social gathering to another.
You're abusing the system.
Direct quote from website:
"First, identify the need for bringing RightRides to your area. Is there a high incident of sexual assault, limited or non-existent public transportation, are taxi services too expensive and it’s too far to walk, do people rely on getting rides home from the bar/club/party only to feel “obligated” to go home with another, are areas between central nightlife culture and the neighborhoods where people live desolate, poorly lit, unsafe?"
I didn't say this is what Right Rides is about, they did.
There goes Crappy again, mouthing off about shit he has 0 clue about. Never stopped him before though, so this is nothing new.
This blog would be great if he wasn't such an ignorant dick about some things.
Aw, did I offend someone by not fawning over this "charity"? Good.
What is untrue about what was posted thus far? We are all entitled to our opinions, especially when our tax dollars are involved.
How you know you've won an argument:
"This blog would be great if he wasn't such an ignorant dick about some things."
Opponent has nothing to retort with, so he resorts to this.
No, you didn't offend me. It's just more pathetic, really. Maybe one day you'll get it, but I doubt it.
Maybe you should explain what there is to "get" instead of acting like a pompous ass.
Queens Crapper, what you quote from the website are various examples of the kinds of things people can consider when thinking about how safe they feel in their community--it is obviously not saying that nightlife culture is essential.
Babs, everything you say is weak; the rampant capitalization isn't making you sound more profound or credible. As a RightRides volunteer I do not "escort me and my friends from one social gathering to another"--I take people I've never met before, people of all ages and backgrounds, from one place to their HOME.
Where do I sign up for this? I come home late on Friday and Saturdays.
As a RightRides volunteer I do not "escort me and my friends from one social gathering to another"--I take people I've never met before, people of all ages and backgrounds, from one place to their HOME.
---
That is nice. Do you serve other vital needs like taking care of pets when Tower People are on vacation?
All the pressing things in this city with real problems, the gay community, like the whining youngsters of LIC and the infamous bike nuts, get attention and funding on shit like this while our communities fall apart right in front of the faces of our indiffernt elected officials.
People are entitled to volunteer their personal time for whatever they think valuable. I volunteered to visit the elderly at nursing homes because that spoke to me.
I participated in events to help diabetics because I knew so many people afflicted.
Perhaps this volunteer at Right Rides has had members of her family attacked and left for dead as I have.
So far as public funding goes, it's one possibility among many to fund. Perhaps its sucking funds better spent elsewhere, perhaps not.
But it is Fascistic to believe you should tell people where to spend their personal unpaid time.
Yeah people from Chicago or Boston dont have street smarts. One undeniable fact is that Queens is a pretty homophobic place to say the least with an abundance of articles in local papers on gay bashing and attacks.
Its no secret that many bars and restaurants in neighborhoods in Queens have macho people saying "the gays are moving into the area" like its some threat to their existence. Sad.
Anonymous - "Perhaps this volunteer at Right Rides has had members of her family attacked and left for dead as I have."
Fine - why not help EVERYONE? And - since it's supposed to be "volunteer" work - why not keep it from being a 2nd source of income on weekends?
Anonymous said: "Its no secret that many bars and restaurants in neighborhoods in Queens have macho people saying "the gays are moving into the area" like its some threat to their existence. Sad."
Bullsh*t.
I am not aware that it is a "second source of income" on the weekends. If so, they would not be volunteers and would be required to have chauffers licenses.
Printing flyers, operating phone lines and so forth takes money.
So far as "helping everyone," goes, you can't simultaneously demand de-funding and expansion at the same time? So where is your checkbook?
They applied for a grant - that's taxpayer money first of all AND that should pay for much of their services as well as for drivers.
Without knowing the cost of the service provided or how much they receive in grants how could you make any financial determination about what they: "Should be able to do with government money."
Little or no information has been provided for this. I only see a single $50,000 dollar grant which wouldn't pay the salaries and benefits of two part-time secretaries.
This reminds me of when I was in High School and the administration had men's teams in several sports but no women's teams.
When a few women started a "soccer club" preparatory to turning it into a team, the administration when ballistic because it wasn't open to men. Apparently discriminating in favor of men is okay, but discriminating against them is verboten.
Much of the bile in this column is fueled by envy, not concern for others.
If it was fueled by concern, you would ask why employers are no longer providing rides for female employees who work late night hours as once was customary in many industries.
Anonymous said - Without knowing the cost of the service provided or how much they receive in grants how could you make any financial determination about what they: "Should be able to do with government money."
It should be very easy to estimate the costs - which would be similar to a courier service as far as cost of fuel and insurance on the vehicles is concerned.
The grant would at the very least reimburse those who have been actively involved - even if it's only a partial reimbursement.
I recall ALL being driven home years ago from Manhattan after a late night at work (of those companies that could afford it of course).
Babs, it should be easy to run a spreadsheet and figure out this information, yet you have made a blanket statement without doing that. Your comments are made without any reference to facts.
In the meantime, as a straight women I have twice nearly been gaybashed. I am unusually tall with fine, straight hair that lays close to my head.
It can be hard to tell that I am a women at times because of this.
Once, a drunk started calling me fagot because he mistook me for a gay man. I had to turn so he could see my cassava melons and then yelled, "I'm a women, go away."
I had a lunatic assume I was a lesbian and try to set his pitbull on me in Astoria Park several years ago too.
Is this the best use of limited funds, maybe not. But I repeat my assertion that envy, not concern about money is behind this.
I am thankful not to have to be attacked on a regular basis because of who I am and I don't wish this on others.
I believe that the people who you had the misfortune to run into would abuse anyone that did not look like Hulk Hogan or who is walking around with a pit bull in tow.
PLEASE take this service . . . .
"But it is Fascistic to believe you should tell people where to spend their personal unpaid time."
Stop changing the subject. No one said these folks can't volunteer their time doing this, but when they start taking taxpayer money to do it, what is done and how it's done becomes our business.
That's not "envy" - that's taxpayer outrage. We have hospitals closing, not enough school seats, and tax money is going toward free rides for a small segment of the population that wants to socialize on the weekends? Give us all a break. It doesn't matter how much tax money it is. And even if they get grants from private organizations, it's pretty much certain that those organizations are funded with our money somehow as well. Most charities in this city would not function without getting discretionary money from the city, state or feds.
Every single one of us knows someone who was assaulted at some point. These folks aren't special.
Most victims of sexual assault know their attackers. It happens on a date or at a party. Not usually from walking the streets.
Sexual assault can happen in the streets, in the home by strangers who push their way in and by lovers and friends who you are seeing socially.
Date rape is one form of assault, but not the only one.
I personally survived an attempt by a hoodlum intent on either mugging or raping me when an undercover cop intervened.
I have known women who literally cut a man's face wide open with a knife when he forced himself on her.
How dare you discount a good portion of how people are injured and killed. Muggings, gay bashings and stranger rapes occur every day.
Okay, we all know that sexual assaults happen in the subways, on the street, in people's houses, at parties and elsewhere. It can happen anywhere. But the chances are upped considerably if the woman has been drinking. So be careful when you drink. And reserve enough money for a cab. End of story.
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