Kristian Cardenas (image via Instagram @ktaay)
Kristian Cardenas — a hair stylist and makeup artist from Lubbock, Texas — had a recent tweet of hers go viral after she shared screenshots of a client who asked if Cardenas was gay and then fired and lectured her after Cardenas said she was. Naturally, the client was Christian (because of course she was — did you even have to ask?).
In the text exchange, the unnamed woman wrote, “I have a few questions I was wondering if you could answer.” When Cardenas agreed, the woman asked point blank, “Are you gay?”
Cardenas wrote back, “Yes ma’am, I am. I’m sorry, but what does that have to do with your wedding or my services?”
The woman then wrote back, “Oh, I don’t want a gay person doing my wedding. I saw your [Facebook] and I couldn’t tell if you were or weren’t gay.”
After this inane BS, Cardenas wrote back, “Okay that’s totally fine, you have a nice day!” But that wasn’t enough for the woman. She then asked, “How can you be Latina and gay? You do know being gay is a sin, correct?”
Apparently, the homophobic woman conflates Latina and religious identity and thinks the two are somehow incompatible with feeling love towards someone of the same-sex, which is ignorant and presumptuous bordering on racist and just plain dumb.
Even though Cardenas didn’t respond, the woman continued lecturing her.
She wrote, “I’m sorry that you’ve chosen a path that’s going to send you straight to Hell. I think you do beautiful makeup, but I just can’t have someone’s who’s gay being a part of my special day. The wedding is in a church and I don’t want you walking into my church.”
And to top it all off, she added, “If you at any chance change your mind about being gay, let me know please so I can book you.”
We wonder if the woman would consider possibly changing her mind about being a bigot, but we’re not holding our breath.
In her tweet with screenshots of the exchange, Cardenas wrote, “Openly sharing who I am with the world is my choice; a choice I will never apologize for. I love what I do and who I am. Today I was taken back a little bit. Homophobia is a real issue still in 2019. Please just be kind to everyone you meet.”
She also wrote, “To everyone messaging me on all my social media, I promise I’m seeing y’alls messages. I love all the support y’all are giving me.” She also encouraged others to reach out with their stories and any other words of encouragement.”
And the reaction tweets have been pretty great too:
Perhaps LGBTQ people should start denying services to Christians en masse just to see how they like a taste of their own bigotry.
On second thought, that isn’t really a very nice thing to do. In fact, a famous man once said something about loving thy neighbor and turning the other cheek. Hmmm… if only we could remember who it was. Seems like the woman above doesn’t remember either.
