Weeks after anti-trans salon posts, Traverse Metropolis grapples with authorized, group implications

Practically a month after a hair salon proprietor’s anti-trans Fb posts despatched shockwaves by means of the Traverse Metropolis group, officers and locals alike are nonetheless wrestling with what it means to be accepting in northern Michigan. 

Christine Geiger, the proprietor of Studio 8 Hair Lab, discovered herself within the nationwide highlight after posting on Fb that she wouldn’t present salon companies to transgender or nonbinary individuals. “If a human identifies as something aside from a person/lady please search companies at a neighborhood pet groomer,” Geiger wrote within the submit. “You aren’t welcome at this salon. Interval.”  

The submit — which got here days after the right-wing-majority U.S. Supreme Court docket on June 30 dominated in 303 Inventive, LLC v. Elenis that a Colorado wedding ceremony web site designer had the proper to disclaim service to homosexual {couples} — garnered nationwide media consideration.

‘Welcoming individuals exist right here’: Traverse Metropolis reacts to anti-trans salon coverage 

Geiger’s phrases, in the meantime, spurred a mixture of outrage and sympathy from the group. 

State Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse Metropolis) mentioned most individuals she’s spoken to concerning the subject had been “horrified” to see Geiger’s posts.

“Individuals who reside on this group don’t want it to be perceived, or in actuality, to be unsafe for LGBTQ+ neighbors,” Coffia mentioned. “Folks from out of city carry it up, and it’s made nationwide information, and nobody that I’ve talked to needs to be related to bigotry in direction of LGBTQ+ members of our group.”

When the Michigan Advance once more tried to contact Geiger for remark, her salon’s voicemail field was full. Studio 8 Hair Lab has additionally privatized its social media accounts. 

Two weeks after Geiger’s posts, the State Theater, a volunteer-run movie show owned by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, hosted a “United Towards Hate” occasion with proceeds donated to The Trevor Challenge, a corporation that advocates for the security of LGBTQ+ youth. The occasion featured a drag present, in addition to demonstrations from hair and make-up artists in assist of the LGBTQ+ group.

Occasions like that aren’t unusual in Traverse Metropolis, an more and more liberal group with an lively delight group. Even so, queer residents are nonetheless confronted with the challenges that include life in a largely rural area. 

Coffia instructed the Michigan Advance that simply previous to Geiger’s posts, a younger trans lady attending considered one of her espresso hour occasions in a neighboring city expressed concern about the best way her rural group perceives and treats transgender and nonbinary individuals.

“She was visibly nervous,” Coffia mentioned. “However to her credit score, she stood up and spoke very courageously about how horrifying it was for her to be focused for her id and desirous to understand how I as a consultant for the area was going to advocate in order that we had been a protected group for everybody.”

Coffia credited the Legislature’s passage of expansions to the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) with serving to to make Michigan a safer place for LGBTQ+ residents, however acknowledged that Traverse Metropolis nonetheless has a methods to go on turning into an entirely affirming space. 

“My imaginative and prescient for what it will appear to be to have an accepting group is that we get to the purpose the place individuals like the lady who owned that salon would by no means once more really feel comfy saying one thing so hateful and harmful,” Coffia mentioned. “There’s such an uptick in identity-based violence in direction of the LGBTQ+ group, and we have to acknowledge that our phrases might be weaponized and may incite violence.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer mentioned that she feels that feedback like Geiger’s solely stand to harm the companies they check with, whereas working with acceptance will carry higher income.

“Bigotry is dangerous for enterprise,” Whitmer mentioned after an occasion in Suttons Bay late final month. “For this reason I signed [the expansions to] the Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act into regulation.”