Tag Archives: kendall oliver

Transgender Army Reservist Sues Barbershop for Discrimination

Kendall Oliver, also known as Brittney, is a US Army Reservist who identifies “more as male than female.” (For the record, she’s a woman, and she refers to herself as “they.”) As noted in March, when she attempted to patronize The Barbershop in Rancho Cucamonga, California, she discovered The Barbershop is just that — a barbershop, not a salon. The Barbershop doesn’t cut women’s hair, and declined to cut her’s.

As noted at The Religion Clause, Oliver has now sued The Barbershop (PDF), claiming the Government requires barbers to cut both men and women’s hair. Part of her justification is that The Barbershop has no “legitimate business justification” for the discrimination, which appears to ignore the fact publicly presenting one’s business as cutting men’s hair is substantially different than presenting one’s business as cutting women’s hair. (Barbers across the country are now gripping their scissors tightly, wondering if they, too, will be required to cut hair they’re either not trained to cut or particularly skilled at cutting.)

Her justification, of course, is that the men who Read more

Sort-of Transgender Army Reservist Threatens Suit over Haircut

The Washington Post reported that Kendall Oliver, a US Army Reservist, was turned away from a barber because the barber wouldn’t cut women’s hair:

Oliver is transgender. And with that, the Army reservist in the Los Angeles area became the latest citizen at the center of a recurring American debate: Where does freedom of religion end and discrimination begin?

That sentence just about summarizes the twisted world this has become.

Oliver is a woman who has decided she identifies “mostly as a man.” According to the article, she uses the pronoun “they” rather than he/she.

“They” is plural, for those who are losing track.

Oliver watched the barber turn another woman Read more