(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/14/2023) The Michigan Department of Civil Rights (MDCR) will announce Wednesday, November 15th, it is filing discrimination charges against a Traverse City hair salon.
Christine Geiger, owner of the Studio 8 Hair Lab, came under fire over the summer for telling transgender customers to “seek services at a local pet groomer.”
In a civil lawsuit filed Oct. 25 in Grand Traverse County Circuit Court, Geiger alleges that the city and three residents – Lee Maynard, Madeline Harris and Heather Spooner, who filed civil rights complaints against her – violated the salon’s constitutional rights to religion and free speech under the First Amendment.
“The owner of the company is a Christian who believes that God created male and female and he blessed them,” Geiger’s attorney David Delaney wrote in the complaint.
“… As part of discharging its religious duty, Studio 8 also desires to explain its religious beliefs about the creation of male and female on the internet and website and in communications with prospective clients, including why those beliefs prevent Studio 8 from celebrating and promoting anything other than the creation of male and female,” he noted. “But Michigan law strips Studio 8 of the freedom to choose what messages to create and to convey in the context of the creation of a male and female.”
The MDCR, which has an announcement via Zoom at 10 a.m. Wednesday, has taken 21 complaints against Studio 8 -- 11 of which are closed because the complainant wanted to ensure MDCR was aware, but declined to take it further. Six of the complaints remain under active investigation and two are in the process of being evaluated to determine if they are jurisdictional.
The suit focuses on the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and the city’s Non-Discrimination Ordinance, which prevents discrimination in public accommodations when it comes to both gender identity and expression. There are no court dates listed in the court record.
