Transsexual hairstylist 'discriminated'

(ANSA) - Naples, August 2 - A transsexual hair stylist and Arcigay rights group on Tuesday denounced what they said was "yet another sad episode of transphobia".
    The incident took place on the summer resort island of Ischia, where hairdresser Valentina Mennella said a couple brought their three children in for haircuts, but left with an excuse as soon as they found out she had a sex change and that she used to be a man.
    "I was a victim of an absurd act of discrimination in my own salon," said Mennella, an Ischia native who was elected Miss Trans in 1993.
    "This episode points to the prejudice transsexuals are still subjected to on the job, and also how transphobia and homophobia are inculcated in children by their own parents," said Arcigay Naples Director Daniela Lourdes Falanga. "An discriminatory, implicitly violent and unacceptable educational model persists in 2016, and this is why a law against homotransphobia is more and more necessary and urgent," she said.
    The Ischia incident took place on July 30, Arcigay said. Transsexuals are people who identify with the opposite sex and take on its physical characteristics via hormone therapy and surgery.