Michigan Hair Salon Refuses to Serve Transgender People
transgender people."If a human identifies as anything other than a man/woman, please seek services at a local pet groomer," the Studio 8 Hair Lab in Traverse City, Michigan, said in a now-deleted Facebook post, The Kansas City Star reported. "You are not welcome at this salon.
Period."Screenshots of the post showed it saying that "This is America; free speech. This small business has the right to refuse services.
We are not bound to any oaths as realtors are regarding discrimination."The post comes shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision in the 303 Creative LLC vs.
Elenis case, siding with Lorie Smith, a Colorado web designer who refused service to a same-sex couple. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Smith, the owner of 303 Creative web designs, had the right to do so."The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees," the Supreme Court said in its decision.Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the opinion and wrote, "Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class." Sotomayor was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in her dissent.The owner of the Studio 8 Hair Lab, Christine Geiger reportedly made an additional post about her service refusal, in a comment on the Overheard in Traverse City Facebook group, according to The Kansas City Star.Newsweek reached out to Geiger via email for comment."I have no issues with LGB.
