A transgender army sergeant said they felt hurt and humiliated after being denied service at a California barbershop.
Army reservist Kendall Oliver, who identifies as a transgender man and uses the gender-neutral pronoun "they," said they were turned away from The Barbershop in Rancho Cucamonga, California, on March 8 because the shop doesn't cater to "women."
The shop's owner, Richard Hernandez, did not dispute Oliver's claims, and argued that he was simply following his faith in turning them away.
“It’s not our intention at all to discriminate against anyone based on their sexual orientation or gender or anything like that,” Hernandez, who reportedly belongs to the Church of God, told CBS Los Angeles.
He explained, in an interview with NBC Los Angeles, that if it were up to him, women would never cut their hair at all.
"People go against what God has created, you start getting everything all out of whack. It's a shame for a man to have long hair, but if a woman has long hair, it's her glory and it speaks to being given to her as her covering," he said. "I don't want to be one who is taking away from her glory."
Although Oliver, 24, said they explained to Hernandez that they identify as male, that apparently wasn't enough.
“It did hurt my feelings, and I don’t want anyone else to experience that,” they told The Guardian. “There is a separation of church and state. And if you have a public business, then everyone in the public should be entitled to access those services.”
Gregory Lipper, senior litigation counsel with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he believes Hernandez's decision to turn Oliver away was discrimination, pure and simple.
"Under California law, businesses can't deny service to customers on the basis of sex or gender identity. That law applies even if the barbershop's discrimination was motivated by religion," Lipper, whose group has reached out to Oliver in the wake of the controversy, told The Huffington Post. "Religious beliefs don't provide an excuse to say, 'We don't serve your kind.'"
Meanwhile, Hernandez is standing firm on his decision, he told Fox News Latino, "If I believed someone was a man, and if they wanted a haircut, I’d give it to them.”
The Huffington Post reached out to Hernandez for additional comment but hadn't heard back by the time of publication.
Sorry, Richard, but we don't have time for people who won't respect others' gender identities in 2016.
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