Supreme Court’s Anti-LGBTQ Ruling Has Already Incited Discrimination

An owner of a Michigan hair salon says the business will begin discriminating against LGBTQ people—just days after the Supreme Court legalizing discrimination against the community.

Christine Geiger, the owner of Studio 8 Hair Lab in Traverse City, said she is exercising her right to free speech by discriminating against specific customers.

“If a human identifies as anything other than a man/woman, please seek services at a local pet groomer,” Geiger wrote in a Facebook post. “You are not welcome at this salon. Period.”

While the salon’s Facebook page has been deleted and its Instagram profile has been set to private, that should not be mistaken as any remorse. The business’s Instagram biography reads: “A private CONSERVATIVE business that does not cater to woke ideologies.”

In a comment in a community Facebook group, Geiger elaborated. “I have no issue with LGB. It’s the TQ+ that I’m not going to support,” she began. “For those that don’t know what the + is for, it’s for MAP (Minor Attracted Person aka: pedophile),” she continued, lying. Scores of other community members responded, noting that she was downright wrong.

And while Geiger has said she is “not a slave to any narrative” but simply looking to make a stance on the issue, she has not responded to any of the individuals calling out her ethical reasoning or factual premises. Nor is she apparently bold enough to keep her social media pages public, despite claiming to be “more than willing to take the first rounds of strike backs” to galvanize others to “bark back” (an interesting choice of words while calling LGBTQ people animals who should go to pet groomers).

Notably, Geiger’s position spoke directly to the Supreme Court’s ruling that the First Amendment trumps civil rights, and discrimination is okay if your values say the other person is “illegitimate.”

“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,” Geiger wrote.

The announcement also followed easily re-elected Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signing legislation in March that bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

While Geiger purports to have concern over the safety of children and stability of society, she herself has in the past actually and repeatedly flouted those concerns. In 2009, for instance, the hair salon owner was charged with third-offense drunken driving and second-offense operating a vehicle with a suspended license; records had shown her driving drunk twice the previous year. In 2021, 13,384 people died in drunk driving-related incidents. No one has died as a result of an LGBTQ person getting a haircut.