At Station10 hair salon, it’s business as usual.

But a recent ruling from the Quebec human rights tribunal has put the small business at the centre of a larger legal battle and social debate.

The salon was ordered to pay $500 to Alexe Frédéric Migneault, who filed a complaint after being required to select either male or female when booking an appointment online.

“It’s just the way our website was built in 2023; it didn’t include a non-gender option,” said Station10 co-owner Alexis Labrecque. “We added it a few months later, it’s not something that you can do very quickly. But for them, it wasn’t enough.”

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Despite the changes, Quebec’s human rights tribunal ruled in favour of the complainant — a decision Labrecque claims could affect other small businesses.

“I think the big story here is that now any salon or any business that requires clients to select man or female are at risk of being sued,” he said.

But the person who filed the complaint considers the ruling an important step forward for non binary people in Quebec, one that sets a major precedent in the legal system.

“Non-binary people are virtually non-existent in the legal corpus,” said Migneault. “There are some brief mentions here and there, but almost no decisions that treat and study the inherent struggles that non-binary people face just to exist in plain sight.”

Migneault believes the decision goes beyond just one business and reflects broader recognition

“We are not more than 5,000 [non-binary people], we are 0.15 per cent of the population,” he added. “But we still deserve a place to exist and participate as active members of society.”

The salon hasn’t ruled out appealing the decision.

It has until March 5 to contest the ruling.

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