Cross-dressing hair stylist claims job discrimination

A hair stylist has filed suit charging he was fired from his salon job because he wears high heels and women's clothes and does not "conform to stereotypes regarding how males should appear and behave."

Daniel Brant worked at the Chop Shop on the Temple University campus and the salon's South Street branch. He filed a discrimination suit last week in U.S. District Court.

Chop Shop owner Kathy Thomas described the suit as "unfair."

"I can't believe he's going through with this," Thomas said.

Brant, who curls his eyelashes and uses brown mascara, was hired full-time at the Chop Shop's Temple salon in Feb. 2008.

In May 2008, according to the suit, a female supervisor complained that Brant was "too flamboyant" for the Temple salon's male clientele. Brant said his income fell when the supervisor stopped sending him male customers.

Later that month, the supervisor transferred him to the salon's South Street branch and reduced his hours to one shift per week, the suit says.

Brant said that even when he wore shoes with a smaller heel to the job, he was ordered to return home.

In July 2008, he called Thomas and registered a sex discrimination complaint.

On August 3, 2008, Thomas fired Brant.

Brant said he was terminated because he referred a client to another salon and Thomas used the referral as a pretext to fire him.

Thomas disputed Brant's account.

"I fired him because he was working at another salon and telling his clients to go over there." Thomas said. "I did not fire him because he was a cross dresser,"

Thomas, who described Brant as "very talented with a nice look and a flair," acknowledged that his wardrobe made some Temple University customers "uncomfortable."

"If he had wanted to wear a dress, that would have been fine," she said. "But at one point, he was wearing Daisy Dukes shorts. He was basically uncovered."