EDITOR'S NOTE: The following audio file is a voice mail Santa Fe hairdresser Antonio Darden left last week with the Office of Governor Susana Martinez. The audio was released to The New Mexican by the Governor's Office.

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The story of a Santa Fe hairdresser who refused to cut Gov. Susana Martinez's hair over the issue of gay marriage spread all over the Internet on Wednesday.

Antonio Darden, owner of Antonio's Hair Studio, told KOB TV that he had cut Martinez's hair a few times. But the most recent time the Governor's Office called, he turned her down. That's because he found out Martinez does not support the right of gay people to be married.

"If I'm not good enough to be married, I'm not going to cut her hair," Darden told The New Mexican on Wednesday.

Darden, who is openly gay and has been with his partner for 15 years, said he only recently learned of Martinez's opposition to same-sex marriage.

The story about the governor and the hairdresser was picked up by several websites and blogs including The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Wonkette -- a political humor site based in Washington, D.C. -- and Comedy Central's Indecision site.

Websites for the New York Daily News and New York magazine also reported the story. The latter piece had a tongue-in-cheek headline: "The Gay Hairdresser Revolt Has Begun," and said, "Maybe it's just an isolated incident -- or maybe it will become the catalyst of a nationwide boycott that will wreak havoc on the hair of anti-equality politicians across the country."

Whenever asked, Martinez, during her 2010 gubernatorial campaign and since, has said she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. But she never made a major issue of it and has done little, if anything, to push legislation against same-sex marriage -- except to say she'd sign it.

"The governor has been very clear that she does not support gay marriage but does believe that all people should be judged on their merits and not discriminated against," Martinez's spokesman, Scott Darnell, said Wednesday. "And her record supports that."

She's not the only politician who is against gay marriage. Former Gov. Bill Richardson favored domestic partnerships but not marriage for same-sex couples -- a stance similar to President Barack Obama's. Gary Johnson, now a Libertarian candidate for president, is the only New Mexico governor to publicly support marriage rights for gays. But that was not Johnson's position when he was governor.

But Martinez recently has taken heat from some who oppose gay rights. After she appointed an openly gay man, Doug Howe, to the Public Regulation Commission last year, the governor was denounced by Steve Smothermon, pastor of One Legacy Church in Albuquerque.

Darnell stressed that Darden was not Martinez's regular hairdresser, saying, "He only cut her hair two or three times about 10 months ago." Darnell said Martinez has a regular hairdresser who she has been going to in Santa Fe for the past three months, "and someone that she goes to if she happens to be in Las Cruces."

"This individual has a right to his opinion, but not to fabricate a story in order to try to score political points," Darnell said.

The only other contact the Governor's Office had with Darden, Darnell said, was when a governor's staffer "called seven or eight different hairstylists about three months ago, on short notice, to see if any had time to get the governor in for a quick haircut. [Darden] and a couple others simply said they weren't able to, but another location was."

But last week, Darnell said, the Governor's Office received a voice mail from Darden, who referred to that previous call from Martinez's staff in which he declined to cut her hair.

"The reason I was refused was because I'd already gotten wind of her opposing gay marriage," Darden said in the voice mail, which was released by the Governor's Office.

"I'm sending out a letter to the editor wanting to know why the governor is so against gay marriage," Darden said in the message, "how it affects her personally, why she has to take a stance on it, why she wants to attack a group or not even support a group, especially a large one in Santa Fe that generates gross-receipts taxes, owns businesses, homes and actually was a supporter of hers."

Darden, in the message, then referred to a controversial outburst at the state Capitol last year in which state Rep. Sheryl Williams-Stapleton, D-Albuquerque, accused a Republican legislator of "carrying water for the Mexican on the fourth floor" -- a reference to Martinez.

In the voice mail, Darden said the comment was "appropriate since she wants to be attacking the gay people."

Darden on Wednesday said the point he was trying to make in bringing up Stapleton's comment was that nobody should be attacking other groups, be they Mexican Americans or gay people.

Following a television news report the night before on Darden refusing to take an appointment for Martinez, the Governor's Office on Wednesday received calls from more than 10 hairstyling businesses that said they'd be "more happy to cut the governor's hair," Darnell said.

Darden said he received more than 100 calls of support Wednesday. Some were from other hairdressers saying they also would refuse to work for Martinez.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.