Since high school, Kendall Oliver has preferred short hair, half an inch on the sides and three to four inches on top.

When Oliver, a transgender Army veteran, visited a Rancho Cucamonga barbershop in March seeking a trim, the owner refused because he perceived Oliver to be female.

Richard Hernandez, who owns The Barbershop on Milliken Avenue, said his Christian religious beliefs forbid him from cutting women’s hair.

“It’s not a matter of discrimination, it’s a matter of religious convictions,” the 30-year-old Ontario resident said. “It’s something I can’t compromise on. To me, that’s a sin and it’s something I can’t do. You can put a gun to my head. It’s not something I’m able to change.”

Oliver, a 24-year-old Eastvale resident, filed a lawsuit in late May alleging the business violated California’s civil rights law when it denied Oliver a haircut based on religious objections.

“I was very disappointed, embarrassed, upset,” Oliver said. “There were other people staring at me. I don’t understand, especially in this day and age with how far we’ve come with equality and human rights, that something like this would still be happening.”

The case is the latest in a series of legal battles across the country that pit religious freedom against discrimination.

The debate has ensnared an Indiana pizza shop that wouldn’t cater a gay wedding, New Mexico photographers who didn’t want to take official pictures at a lesbian wedding ceremony and a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

“It’s not going to be the last time we have these things,” said Ivan Strenski, professor emeritus of religious studies at UC Riverside. “I think the country is going to have to get over this idea of seeing things as black and white. There’s going to be a lot of gray in the world: racially mixed marriages, racially mixed kids, gender bending.”

‘NO, MA’AM’

Oliver, who grew up in Ontario, has served more than six years in the Army Reserve, including a tour of Afghanistan. Oliver was born as a female but identifies more male than female.

In adulthood, Oliver came to terms with being transgender. As a self-description, Oliver uses gender-neutral pronouns such as “they” rather “she” or “he.”

When Oliver arrived at The Barbershop for an appointment March 8, a woman with short hair on one side and longer hair on the other was already there. Hernandez told her he didn’t cut women’s hair and she left, the lawsuit states. Oliver was still optimistic about being served because Oliver didn’t have long hair.

Hernandez looked at Oliver and repeated that he didn’t cut women’s hair, the lawsuit says.

“I was like, ‘Even though I already have short hair?” I just want to get it like the guy in the chair right now,” Oliver recalled telling him.

Oliver left and a few minutes later called Hernandez to explain about being transgender and asked if he would reconsider.

Hernandez told Oliver, “No, ma’am,” and stated he wouldn’t cut the hair of “any kind of woman,” the lawsuit states.

The refusal caused Oliver to feel “more insulted, hurt and upset,” the suit states.

After the incident, Oliver and Hernandez were interviewed together by television news media. Oliver asked Hernandez during the interview why he doesn’t advertise that he doesn’t give haircuts to women. Hernandez said it would be bad for business, the suit states.

Hernandez said that’s not what he told Oliver.

“What I said is, I would have people trying to sue me all the time if I (advertised it),” he said. “People would stereotype that as discrimination.”

Hernandez said he belongs to the Church of God, which includes several evangelical Protestant denominations, the largest of which is Pentecostal. Hernandez declined to discuss details of his faith or name the church he attends, saying he fears retaliation.

He said he’s following a practice of not cutting women’s hair that was customary in Christian denominations until the early 20th Century.

“We don’t compromise with the times,” said Hernandez, a 30-year-old Ontario resident. “We don’t change because the rest of the world changes.”

“It’s a shame for a man to have long hair, but if a woman has long hair, it’s her glory and it speaks to being given to her as her covering, and I don’t want to be the one who is taking away from her glory,” the lawsuit states, quoting news reports.

He added that when “people go against what God has created, you start getting everything out of whack,” the suit says.

Hernandez said he apologized to Oliver and offered to reimburse the cost of a haircut. He said he has had subsequent conversations with Oliver, who “seems to be pretty understanding” about his views but is being influenced by “outside forces” in the LGBT community trying to exploit the situation for their own purposes.

“I did nothing wrong, nor did I do anything degrading or demoralizing,” he said. “I also treat everyone with the utmost respect. And I treated her with the utmost respect.”

RELIGION OR DISCRIMINATION?

The suit seeks damages of at least $4,000. Oliver said the case isn’t being driven by outside pressure and money doesn’t matter.

“The only thing I care about is that this doesn’t happen to anyone else again and they comply with the law,” Oliver said.

Lambda Legal, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that advocates for LGBT people, is representing Oliver along with other pro-bono lawyers.

The lawsuit, filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court, alleges The Barbershop violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which guarantees all people full and equal access to all business establishments in the state without regard to their sex, race, religion and other characteristics.

In addition to civil rights, the case is about whether religion can be used as an excuse for discrimination, said Peter Renn, Lambda Legal staff attorney.

“The answer should be no,” Renn said. “Ultimately, freedom of religion also requires freedom from religion, especially given the huge diversity of religious beliefs we have in this country. If everyone’s religious beliefs allowed them to violate the law, the law would come to a screeching halt.”

Douglas NeJaime, a professor at UCLA School of Law, said objections to anti-discrimination law based on religious beliefs go back to the civil rights era in the 1950s and ’60s, when some restaurants and other businesses refused to serve black customers.

He noted the California Supreme Court in 2008 unanimously ruled in favor of an Oceanside lesbian who was denied infertility treatment based on her sexual orientation. Doctors at a women’s medical clinic sought a religious exemption to the law because of their fundamentalist Christian beliefs.

NeJaime, faculty director of the Williams Institute, a think tank focused on LGBT legal issues, said the facts in the barbershop lawsuit “appear to make a clear case of discrimination that would violate state law.”

Hernandez said he has lawyer but wouldn’t provide a name. He said several legal organizations have offered to take his case.

“I’m not bowing down at all,” he said.

If there’s one thing Oliver and Hernandez can agree on, it’s that they have received angry comments from people who disagree with them.

“There’s hateful people on both sides,” Hernandez said. “I don’t want it to get ugly for either one of us.”

Contact the writer: 951-368-9292 or swall@pe.com