Customer preference can't be reason for bias.

The customer might be right about a lot of things, but discrimination is not one of them.

As the EEOC says, federal job-bias law "does not permit discriminatory employment decisions based on customer preference." So it's illegal to exclude certain employees based on their protected characteristics--race, religion, gender, age, disability status or even sexual orientation--simply because you think customers may prefer it.

Recent case: A Minnesota furniture store rejected a transgender applicant for a sales position, explaining to the candidate that he "won't mix well with our customers."

The...