Mon 14 Mar 2016 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
An Auckland Hairdresser says she was told to resign when she came out as transgender to her employer at Barkers Groom Room. 23-year-old, Dakota Hemmingson, says that when she told her employer about her decision to transition from male to female, she was told that she could no longer match the company’s “commercial profile” and was asked to resign. She refused to sign a letter stating that her departure was a mutual agreement and is taking her case to the Employment Relations Authority. Barkers Groom Room, managed by Mensworks owner Matt Swan, deny claims regarding her dismissal. ProudNZ Conference Co-Convenor, Rawa Karetai, says the rainbow community are very concerned to hear about the allegations made by Hemmingson. “Kiwis like to believe in giving people a fair go and if the allegations are proven to be correct then this is anything but.” “We totally endorse what Rainbow Youth has said about it [in an interview with the NZ Herald] – the situation is a textbook case that illustrates why transgender youth ended up over-represented in statistics for depression, homelessness and suicide.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 14th March 2016 - 12:27pm