Calling Male Hairdressers 'Faggot' is OK, According to French Ruling

A bizarre ruling from a Paris tribunal says that calling a male hairdresser a "faggot" is not homophobic "because hair salons regularly employ gay people," the BBC reports.

The ruling stems from a case where a salon employee was fired after he failed to go to work because he was sick. His boss accidentally sent him a text with the word "faggot" and the hairdresser took him to an employment tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal.

"I am not going to keep [the employee]... I don't have a good feeling about this guy. He's a faggot," the text allegedly said, according to the French newspaper Liberation.

Nevertheless, the hairdresser ended up losing his case. The tribunal ruled that using a gay slur is OK because most male hairdressers are gay.

"If we put it in the context of the field of hairdressing, the council considers that the term 'faggot' used by a manager cannot be considered as a homophobic insult, because hair salons regularly employ gay people, notably in female hairdressers, and that poses no problem at all," the ruling states, according to the BBC.

The tribunal said the word was insulting but it wasn't deemed discriminatory.

Unsurprisingly, social media users flipped out over the ruling. French journalist Mathieu Brancourt shared the ruling on Twitter and said: "You are a hairdresser, you get called a faggot, and that's OK because hairdressers are often gay right. Thanks, tribunal."

French Labour Minister Myriam el Khomri called the ruling "deeply shocking."

The employee was awarded $5,700 in damages but he will appeal the tribunal's judgement.