Maybe he welcomes the small talk but finds the process of correcting false assumptions laborious? I get what you're saying and I don't think you're trying to be homophobic, but realize that that attitude often comes off the same as "I don't mind people being gay, I just don't want to see it or have to hear about it". It's a subtle form of oppression, where gay people are made to feel that they are not free to engage in the same small talk as hetero people, lest they offend someone's sensibilities.
I didn't say anything approaching what you claim the attitude is.
My point was that small talk, particular cabby small talk, almost always involves false assumptions, and this has nothing to do with being ignorant.
Otherwise, they have exactly the problem you mention in the last sentence. They see people from all walks of life. If they didn't make some set of assumptions (be it about sexuality, gender, typical behavior of males, typical behavior of females), they'd never be able to engage in any small talk, lest they offend someone's sensibilities.
As I said, you may find this offensive, but it's not about ignorance.
I don't find this offensive, merely annoying. In your previous post you make it sound like it is easy to avoid the kind of small talk that reveals that you are gay. This is not the case. Sure, you can be blunt and give 1 word answers every time somebody tries to make smalltalk with you, but that will just make people think you are in a perpetually bad mood. About half the time I will just play along and mentally substitute the genders to avoid any awkward situations, but you can't really do this if you may see the person again, or when people who know that you are gay are also present (because then you will confuse them). If you do use the correct genders then more often than not there is an awkward situation, sometimes resulting in complete silence and then the other person will try to get away from you (not because they hate you, just to get out of the awkward situation).
The author isn't making a point about ignorance. Everyone wants to act like he's blaming the cabby and he's not. As someone who is constantly in this situation, it's tiring. It's a reminder of how many people treat me as a gay man first rather than a software developer.
It's the same problem with the people that say "Oh, women at conferences should be flattered by the attention". They want to be seen as equal. I want to be seen as equal. Having to stop and explain, "No, I don't have a wife" is a reminder of the fact that most of our society still walks around assuming every stranger is straight.
