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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 6376
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 2721
Referred to Committee on LABOR AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
Introduced by:
(LAB)
AN ACT CREATING A RESPECTFUL AND OPEN WO RLD FOR
NATURAL HAIR.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 46a-51 of the 2020 supplement to the general 1
statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof 2
(Effective from passage): 3
As used in section 4a-60a and this chapter: 4
(1) "Blind" refers to an individual whose central visual acuity does 5
not exceed 20/200 in the better eye with correcting lenses, or whose 6
visual acuity is greater than 20/200 but is accompanied by a limitation 7
in the fields of vision such that the widest diameter of the visual field 8
subtends an angle no greater than twenty degrees; 9
(2) "Commission" means the Commission on Human Rights and 10
Opportunities created by section 46a-52; 11
(3) "Commission legal counsel" means a member of the legal staff 12
employed by the commission pursuant to section 46a-54; 13 Raised Bill No. 6376
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(4) "Commissioner" means a member of the commission; 14
(5) "Court" means the Superior Court or any judge of said court; 15
(6) "Discrimination" includes segregation and separation; 16
(7) "Discriminatory employment practice" means any discriminatory 17
practice specified in section 46a-60 or 46a-81c; 18
(8) "Discriminatory practice" means a violation of section 4a-60, 4a-19
60a, 4a-60g, 31-40y, subparagraph (C) of subdivision (15) of section 46a-20
54, subdivisions (16) and (17) of section 46a-54, section 46a-58, 46a-59, 21
46a-60, 46a-64, 46a-64c, 46a-66, 46a-68, 46a-68c to 46a-68f, inclusive, or 22
46a-70 to 46a-78, inclusive, subsection (a) of section 46a-80 or sections 23
46a-81b to 46a-81o, inclusive; 24
(9) "Employee" means any person employed by an employer but shall 25
not include any individual employed by such individual's parents, 26
spouse or child; 27
(10) "Employer" includes the state and all political subdivisions 28
thereof and means any person or employer with three or more persons 29
in such person's or employer's employ; 30
(11) "Employment agency" means any person undertaking with or 31
without compensation to procure employees or opportunities to work; 32
(12) "Labor organization" means any organization which exists for the 33
purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining or of dealing with 34
employers concerning grievances, terms or conditions of employment, 35
or of other mutual aid or protection in connection with employment; 36
(13) "Intellectual disability" means intellectual disability as defined in 37
section 1-1g; 38
(14) "Person" means one or more individuals, partnerships, 39
associations, corporations, limited liability companies, legal 40
representatives, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy, receivers and the state 41 Raised Bill No. 6376
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and all political subdivisions and agencies thereof; 42
(15) "Physically disabled" refers to any individual who has any 43
chronic physical handicap, infirmity or impairment, whether congenital 44
or resulting from bodily injury, organic processes or changes or from 45
illness, including, but not limited to, epilepsy, deafness or being hard of 46
hearing or reliance on a wheelchair or other remedial appliance or 47
device; 48
(16) "Respondent" means any person alleged in a complaint filed 49
pursuant to section 46a-82 to have committed a discriminatory practice; 50
(17) "Discrimination on the basis of sex" includes but is not limited to 51
discrimination related to pregnancy, child-bearing capacity, 52
sterilization, fertility or related medical conditions; 53
(18) "Discrimination on the basis of religious creed" includes but is 54
not limited to discrimination related to all aspects of religious 55
observances and practice as well as belief, unless an employer 56
demonstrates that the employer is unable to reasonably accommodate 57
to an employee's or prospective employee's religious observance or 58
practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's 59
business; 60
(19) "Learning disability" refers to an individual who exhibits a severe 61
discrepancy between educational performance and measured 62
intellectual ability and who exhibits a disorder in one or more of the 63
basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using 64
language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in a diminished 65
ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell or to do mathematical 66
calculations; 67
(20) "Mental disability" refers to an individual who has a record of, or 68
is regarded as having one or more mental disorders, as defined in the 69
most recent edition of the American Psychiatric Association's 70
"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders"; [and] 71 Raised Bill No. 6376
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(21) "Gender identity or expression" means a person's gender-related 72
identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that gender-related 73
identity, appearance or behavior is different from that traditionally 74
associated with the person's physiology or assigned sex at birth, which 75
gender-related identity can be shown by providing evidence including, 76
but not limited to, medical history, care or treatment of the gender-77
related identity, consistent and uniform assertion of the gender-related 78
identity or any other evidence that the gender-related identity is 79
sincerely held, part of a person's core identity or not being asserted for 80
an improper purpose; [.] 81
(22) "Veteran" means veteran as defined in subsection (a) of section 82
27-103; [.] 83
(23) "Race" is inclusive of traits historically associated with race, 84
including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles; and 85
(24) "Protective hairstyles" includes, but is not limited to, hairstyles 86
such as braids, locs and twists. 87
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 from passage 46a-51
Statement of Purpose:
To prohibit discrimination on the basis of ethnic hairstyles historically
associated with race, by adopting what is commonly referred to as the
CROWN Act.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]