Michigan Hair Salon Refuses to Serve Transgender People

A hair salon in Michigan is under fire after reportedly saying it would refuse service to 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. It's the TQ+ that I'm not going to support," Geiger's comment said. "This stance was taken to insure that clients have the best experience and I am admitting that since I am not willing to play the pronoun game or cater to requests outside of what I perceive as normal this probably isn't the best option for that type of client.

"This is a free country and I am not a slave to any narrative. Conservatives need to acclimate these woke individuals to their new reality. Conservatives have HAD ENOUGH of their ideologies being projected onto us," the comment said.

In March, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation that "reaffirms legal protections for sexual orientation and expands coverage to include gender identity and expression."

Traverse City's LGBTQ organization Polestar said in a statement to Michigan news station WWTV News: "Studio 8 Hair Lab's recent comments comparing members of the queer community to animals are not welcomed in Traverse City, Period."