How a barber helped change the views of a bigoted client

By Nicole Comstock

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    TEMECULA, California (KCAL) — Sometimes you feel a different person after getting a haircut. But the unlikely bond at a barbershop in Temecula changed the way one client looks at the world.

“I said to myself, I would never let this person touch me,” client Jeff Comerchero said.

Comerchero added he realized he was a bigot when he first saw EJ Radford working at his hair salon in 2021. Radford is nonbinary. He has visible tattoos, piercings and a super endearing smile.

“I was sitting home that night and I was appalled at myself for what I was thinking, because I knew that wasn’t me,” Comerchero said.

Comerchero, the former mayor of Temecula, said he didn’t learn a lot about queer people living in the conservative town. However, Radford did.

“You see a lot of hate in the media and a lot of hate from certain groups, but at the end of the day, Temecula’s filled of a lot of really cool people. That’s why I’m still here,” Radford said.

This is why the young barber didn’t judge a book by its cover.

“For him to open up to me and be like, ‘Hey, I’m not really educated on this, but you’re a cool person, and I’d like to know more about you,'” Radford said. “It was really nice and refreshing for me because, especially in his age group, I don’t really get a whole lot of people who are genuinely curious and respectful about it.”

The pair became good friends after Comerchero was educated about gender identity and deconstructed his prejudice in the barber’s chair.

“That’s my boy right there,” Radford said. “He has my back and I have his.”

In fact, their story inspired the two so much they decided to write a book about it: “The Old Man and The Queer: The Transformative Story of a Retired Mayor and the Barber Who Freed Him from Bigotry.”

“Gender identity, sexual identity, although important, they are really superficial in terms of relationships and it really changed my life,” Comerchero said.

Radford said that one of the goals of the book was to show that queer or transgender people are humans also.

“That’s one of the goals of the book is to show people that have never met a queer or a trans person that we’re just human beings like the rest of you guys.”

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