WASHINGTON -- Despite the public protests of a local hairstylist, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez said on Monday that she would continue to oppose efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in her state.
The Republican was turned down for a hair appointment because of her opposition to marriage equality. But when asked by The Huffington Post if that bit of non-violent civil disobedience had caused her to reconsider the issue, she replied, definitively: "no."
"First of all, if reporters would ask me the first question, which would be 'Is he my hair stylist?' The answer is no," Martinez said, after having left a meeting of the nation's governors at the White House. "He did my hair three times when I first moved to Santa Fe. But frankly he talked too much ... I just went, 'You know, I go here to relax."
Several weeks ago Martinez was left sans-attendant for her shoulder length bob after stylist Antonio Darden declined to take her as a customer. Darden, an openly gay 46-year-old Santa Fe resident, told The Huffington Post that he had been persuaded to drop the governor as a client after he heard her speak favorably about Gov. Chris Christie's (R) decision to veto same-sex marriage legislation in New Jersey.
"It makes me think more, why don’t gay people, because of the service industry we provide, start doing the same thing and get our rights," Darden said. "We are not asking for something outrageous."