Paul Bruno, 27, and his partner were sitting close to one another after hailing a taxi at 13th Street and First Avenue on Monday night.

Bruno told the Post that the taxi driver, Medhat Monhamed, pulled the car over after driving only two blocks and said, “You guys have to get out of the taxi! Hugging is not allowed in here!”

The couple immediately filed a complaint against the driver with the Taxi and Limousine Commision (TLC) by dialing 311.

Bruno said, “I don’t know if it was a personal or religious thing. But it’s never OK to deny anyone a ride, especially when it’s such blatant and direct discrimination.”

A spokesman for TLC said they would investigate and take this allegation seriously, resulting in a $200 to $500 fine for Mohamed if it is his first offense.

Both men want a formal apology from the driver.

Bruno said, “He’s in the wrong place and in the wrong line of work if he doesn’t have an open and tolerant attitude,” adding, “I’ve seen a lot more go on in taxis than hugging.”

The political gods are screwing with Bill Thompson. By all rights he should be giving New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg a run for his considerable money; however, Thompson’s vision is getting lost  in an election where the standard  Big Apple political fisticuffs is nowhere to be found.

The comptroller has been running a vigorous campaign, but from all polls it looks like he’s going to lose badly. This surprises because Bloomberg, for all his good qualities and achievements, essentially decided  the will of the voters don’t matter. City voters in 1993 and 1996 decided that elected officials should only serve two terms. The City Council and Bloomberg decided this wasn’t a good idea and came up with a new law that allowed elected officials to run for three terms. While all three daily newspapers mention this as a hiccup for the mayor, they all endorsed him. Enthusiastically. All the while calling Thompson a decent guy and good comptroller.

Thompson did get some respect from Gay City News. The editors say when it comes to LGBT issues, Bloomberg talks a very good game but the words never match  the action on the streets. Especially when it comes to marriage equality.

“In 2005, at the same time the mayor decided to appeal a Manhattan district court judge’s pro-gay marriage ruling, for the first time he announced his support for marriage equality and pledged to lobby Albany to secure that right. That December, he told Gay City News, ‘When I say I’ll do something, I’ll do something.’”

The paper looks at Thompson and noted  he used his considerable power through  shareholder resolutions and city funds investing for “nondiscrimination protections and equal partner benefits for LGBT workers at nearly 75 major corporations.”

Maybe if Thompson was fiery, had an outsize personality, or said wacky stuff, he would have a chance. But  it looks like a decent guy, who is good with numbers, will have a humbling defeat.

He was born in Texas in 1961. He discovered his love of fashion and design after designing his first dress at age 15.

After graduating high school, Oldham moved to Dallas and worked at Polo/Ralph Lauren in 1980.  He designed his first fashion collection and sold it to Neiman Marcus in 1981.

He moved to New York City in 1988 and became creative consultant to Escada, a prestigious luxury international fashion house.

In the mid ’90s, Oldham designed a line of furniture for Warner Brothers Pictures based off of the movie Batman Forever. The ’90s also saw him getting into the field of television as he hosted a number of fashion specials for MTV.

His furniture designs were commissioned by La-Z-Boy in the early and mid ’00s. Oldham also served as creative director for Old Navy during this time.

Oldham has published books regarding subjects of his interest and expertise. He is also an active philanthropist.

It’s easy to forget that a politician is only as good as the services provided. Sure talking points, speechifying, acumen about nitty-gritty policy details all are worth something; however, any pol who doesn’t react quickly to the concerns of her constituents is not long for the gig.

Yesterday New York’s junior senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand held a Q&A at NYC’s LGBT Community Center. She was introduced by Lt. Daniel Choi, more about that later, and said a whole lot folks here would like, but it was her staff that earned my attention. A gentleman asked the senator about the recent decision not to have living increases for Social Security in 2010. The questioner also wondered what Gillibrand was going to do to help gay and lesbian seniors. The senator admitted she didn’t know much about the topic, but asked him to help her and call her office. When the event ended, one of her aides found him and gave him cards with phone numbers. In fact, her aides spent all of their time after the event  finding people who asked questions, taking names and numbers. I’m loathe to make predictions, but if Gillibrand and her team keep paying attention to these small details she will be hard to beat in 2012.

Choi introduced her and his words were a rousing defense of the senator and not so subtle critique of the Commander-in-Chief.

“Senator Gillibrand is more than a fierce advocate,” Choi said.

No one in the 200 plus audience seemed to disagree with this comparison, but Gillibrand is no political novice or blustery advocate. In her words, she noted President Obama’s commitment to gay rights and didn’t take Choi’s bait.

The centerpiece of her speech focused on the upcoming Senate hearings on DADT. The senator is convinced the policy needs to end, but thinks the hearing will bring around enough senators (60) so that a repeal will be filibuster proof.

“Convincing the handful of senators who are undecided is our greatest challenge,” she said.

Jack Price remains in a medically induced coma. He is in serious but stable condition.

Police say the two suspects taunted Price and yelled anti-gay slurs while he was in the store early Friday. They attacked him outside, not far from his home in the middle-class Queens neighborhood of College Point.

Twenty-six-year-old Daniel Aleman was arrested Sunday and charged with assault and aggravated assault as a hate crime. The name of his attorney was not on record.

A second suspect is being sought. The police department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating.

This time, I was on a date.

Apparently Edward Albee was thinking of this particular date when he wrote this line in “The Zoo Story”: “Sometimes a person has to go a long way out of his way to come back a short distance correctly.”

Marc, my date, wasn’t a New Yorker. He lives in Louisiana as well, in New Orleans, just two hours down the interstate from me. We were both visiting New York (Funny, no? You travel up the East Coast and end up getting moony over a guy who lives a car ride from you every other week of your life. Go figure.), and a Thursday lunch date and evening hang-out had made a second date something of a necessity, and that second date, which began early with breakfast at a nice little place at Union Square, had drifted by mid-afternoon to Central Park and the Bethesda Fountain.

The fountain was my idea.

For me, it was a Grand Symbolic Gesture – the arrival of something new springing up on the heels of something broken, being marked at a place that commemorates healing and rejuvenation, and as Grand Symbolic Gestures go in my life, this one was cut down to size by the impossible to control: rain.

Lots of rain.

Marc and I were stuck under the Terrace for almost an hour, listening to the rain (and a really great family band with a killer way around vocal harmonies), talking, getting to know each other. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon, minus the soggy shirts and hoodies.

Do I like Marc? Very much. Have I already mapped out an extensive future that includes Marc, a dog or two, maybe an adopted kid and arguments over who should be taking out the trash? Sure, it’s an inevitability with me, I have a tendency to follow a moment through all its possible conclusions, tracing a finger along the line this possibility makes across the map that is my life, seeing what destinations this road could take me to. And Marc smacks of possibility, in the best of all possible ways.

And isn’t that what we’re fighting for? Not marriage so much (although yes, we are fighting for marriage, we’re fighting for the paper and the rights and the name and the institution) but we’re really, when it comes down to it, fighting for possibility, for our lives to include, from the moment we’re born, the possibility of marriage as one of the many possibilities we can dream forward.

And not just marriage. The possibility of a welcoming house of faith. The possibility of a job we won’t lose because we’re gay. The possibility of a family we can create with our partner. Not being the victim of violence. Not being rejected by our parents. Not being bullied in school. An endless list of possibilities that we’ve somehow lived without.

When that is missing, when the hope is missing, the road that branches, the choice that can be made, our lives are lessened. And when possibility springs up in one place – when a interesting guy sitting next to you under the Terrace near the Bethesda Fountain leans over and kisses you on the cheek unexpectedly and laughs this distinctive chuckle that sounds one part mischief, one part contentedness – you suddenly want that possibility everywhere else. It fuels the fight.

Tomorrow, I’m driving to New Orleans to spend the day with Marc. I’m walking this road of possibility and seeing where it takes me. I’ll be thinking about the folks in Washington as the National Equality March, because regardless of what you think of the March, there’s going to be a lot of hopefulness there, people aching to find a little possibility to hang on to, and I hope they find it. And I’ll be thinking about everyone who finally owns who they are on National Coming Out Day (be brave, be steadfast, it’s not easy but it’s worth it!)

And I’ll be thinking about my friends Stan and Bruce, who after being together for 19 and a half years, went to Connecticut this weekend and got married. (God bless your union, may you have 20 more years, 40 more, infinite blessings and joys!)

Maybe I’m at the start of my 19 and a half years. Maybe not. Either way, I am filled with what’s possible, and it’s a wonderful feeling. The Angel Bethesda touched a foot on the Earth and a healing fountain sprang up. Marc kissed me on the cheek while waiting out the rain, and the wounds I’d been nursing were healed a bit as well.

The world is a wide open space. It’s ours. Let’s shape the most beautiful place we can.

The New York City Commission for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Runaway and Homeless Youth will address the problems of LGBTQ teens before they resort to running away, according to a press release. The program will provide homeless youth with housing and emotional support, plus family reuniting services.

Currently, the Department of Youth and Community Development offers drop-in centers, transitional independent living programs and street outreach services for homeless youth, but a new committee of 25 civic leaders will re-evaluate youth services and ensure they are targeting LGBTs.

“New York City may be one of the most tolerant places on earth, but LGBTQ youth still face daily discrimination that forces many of them to leave home and sometimes make risky decisions,” said Bloomberg.

Earlier this week, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn announced a significant expansion to New York’s anti-bullying program “Respect for All.” The program, founded in 2007, was created to prevent bullying and to help students deal with harassment inside the New York Public School System.

The recently-expanded initiative will extend training programs to all elementary school teachers and counselors and will guide principals in creating anti-bullying plans and maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment.

“Eliminating bullying and harassment in our schools is critical to preventing hate among future generations,” Quinn said. “And now, by increasing training opportunities and accountability, we’ve created the most comprehensive anti-harassment initiative in the nation.”

Staff training and accountability is cruciala, Quinn said. “Respect for All” schools are required to develop annual plans to convey appropriate standards of behavior to students and staff, investigate complaints properly, and require all staff to attend two-day training sessions.