Michigan salon owner refuses to serve LGBTQ+ community after SCOTUS ruling

Hairdresser photo from Bigstock.

A salon and beauty supply business owner in Traverse City, a Lake Michigan port city of 15,559 people in Northern Michigan, declared that she will not serve anyone who identifies other than a man or a woman. Instead she caustically noted that those persons should seek the services of a local pet groomer.

In a Facebook post on her since deleted Facebook page, Christine Geiger, who stated that she is the co-owner of Studio 8 Hair Lab in Traverse City wrote:

“If a human identifies as anything other than a man/woman please seek services at a local pet groomer. You are not welcome at this salon. Period.

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. My recent airport experience validates this.”

In her Facebook post, Geiger referred to the action taken in March of this year, when Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which expands basic protections for the LGBTQ community.

The Michigan Bridge reported that the legislation, dubbed historic by supporters and LGBTQ rights advocates, means that employers won’t be able to fire or refuse to hire a person because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. 

Landlords and real estate agents cannot refuse to rent or sell a property to a person because of their sexual orientation or gender identity under the legislation, and businesses won’t be able to deny goods or services to LGBTQ patrons.

In response to Geiger’s Facebook post, the Polestar LGBT+ Community Center of Traverse City issued a statement.They said that “Studio 8 Hair Lab’s recent comments comparing members of the queer community to animals are not welcomed in Traverse City, Period.

“Hate has shown time and time again to be a losing business strategy and we must not allow this blight to take root in our town,” the statement continued. “Statements like the one from Studio 8 undermine the hard work that has been put in to make Traverse City the absolute best that it can be.”

The Studio 8 Hair Lab Facebook page has been deleted, and its Instagram is set to private. In the biography for the business on Instagram, Geiger notes that her business “does not cater to woke ideologies.”

Her Facebook post came days following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in 303 Creative v. Elenis, that under the First Amendment, a web designer could refuse to make a website for same-sex marriages based on her religious beliefs.

In another Facebook post in the group “Overheard in Traverse City” a public group with 70.5K members, Geiger falsely expanded her viewpoints echoing Q-Anon and far-right ideology.

“I have no issues with LGB. It’s the TQ+ that I’m not going to support. For those that don’t know what the + is for, it’s for MAP (Minor Attracted Person aka: pedophile) 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.

There are over 800 licensed stylists in the County. There are plenty of salons/stylists willing to cater to what I will not. 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.

We used to ‘just let them be.’ Most of us kept our opinions to ourselves. I mean why look for unnecessary conflict; right? Well the other side used this against us. They mistook our silence for weakness and look where it got us.

So now many of us bark back we speak out and we make it CLEAR where we stand on these issues. They can’t handle it. They aren’t prepared for this. So I am more than willing to take the first rounds of strike backs in hopes that more of you will see this and be inspired to stand up tall and speak your own truths and not simply let them be.”

Responses to her anti-LGBTQ post were universally dismissive and castigated her for her position and ideology.

Traverse City is also home to openly gay U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Michigan-born Chasten Buttigieg, whose parents live in the city. Additionally, Michigan’s Attorney General, Dana Nessel, is a married out lesbian.

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