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