LCO No. 3954 1 of 4
General Assembly Bill No. 6515
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 3954
Referred to Committee on No Committee
Introduced by:
REP. RITTER M., 1
st
Dist.
SEN. LOONEY, 11
th
Dist.
REP. ROJAS, 9
th
Dist.
SEN. DUFF, 25
th
Dist.
REP. PORTER, 94
th
Dist.
SEN. KUSHNER, 24
th
Dist.
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 Section 46a-51 of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage): 2
As used in section 4a-60a and this chapter: 3
(1) "Blind" refers to an individual whose central visual acuity does 4
not exceed 20/200 in the better eye with correcting lenses, or whose 5
visual acuity is greater than 20/200 but is accompanied by a limitation 6
in the fields of vision such that the widest diameter of the visual field 7
subtends an angle no greater than twenty degrees; 8
(2) "Commission" means the Commission on Human Rights and 9
Opportunities created by section 46a-52; 10
(3) "Commission legal counsel" means a member of the legal staff 11
Bill No.
LCO No. 3954 2 of 4
employed by the commission pursuant to section 46a-54; 12
(4) "Commissioner" means a member of the commission; 13
(5) "Court" means the Superior Court or any judge of said court; 14
(6) "Discrimination" includes segregation and separation; 15
(7) "Discriminatory employment practice" means any discriminatory 16
practice specified in section 46a-60 or 46a-81c; 17
(8) "Discriminatory practice" means a violation of section 4a-60, 4a-18
60a, 4a-60g, 31-40y, subparagraph (C) of subdivision (15) of section 46a-19
54, subdivisions (16) and (17) of section 46a-54, section 46a-58, 46a-59, 20
46a-60, 46a-64, 46a-64c, 46a-66, 46a-68, 46a-68c to 46a-68f, inclusive, or 21
46a-70 to 46a-78, inclusive, subsection (a) of section 46a-80 or sections 22
46a-81b to 46a-81o, inclusive; 23
(9) "Employee" means any person employed by an employer but shall 24
not include any individual employed by such individual's parents, 25
spouse or child; 26
(10) "Employer" includes the state and all political subdivisions 27
thereof and means any person or employer with three or more persons 28
in such person's or employer's employ; 29
(11) "Employment agency" means any person undertaking with or 30
without compensation to procure employees or opportunities to work; 31
(12) "Labor organization" means any organization which exists for the 32
purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining or of dealing with 33
employers concerning grievances, terms or conditions of employment, 34
or of other mutual aid or protection in connection with employment; 35
(13) "Intellectual disability" means intellectual disability as defined in 36
section 1-1g; 37
(14) "Person" means one or more individuals, partnerships, 38
Bill No.
LCO No. 3954 3 of 4
associations, corporations, limited liability companies, legal 39
representatives, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy, receivers and the state 40
and all political subdivisions and agencies thereof; 41
(15) "Physically disabled" refers to any individual who has any 42
chronic physical handicap, infirmity or impairment, whether congenital 43
or resulting from bodily injury, organic processes or changes or from 44
illness, including, but not limited to, epilepsy, deafness or being hard of 45
hearing or reliance on a wheelchair or other remedial appliance or 46
device; 47
(16) "Respondent" means any person alleged in a complaint filed 48
pursuant to section 46a-82 to have committed a discriminatory practice; 49
(17) "Discrimination on the basis of sex" includes but is not limited to 50
discrimination related to pregnancy, child-bearing capacity, 51
sterilization, fertility or related medical conditions; 52
(18) "Discrimination on the basis of religious creed" includes but is 53
not limited to discrimination related to all aspects of religious 54
observances and practice as well as belief, unless an employer 55
demonstrates that the employer is unable to reasonably accommodate 56
to an employee's or prospective employee's religious observance or 57
practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's 58
business; 59
(19) "Learning disability" refers to an individual who exhibits a severe 60
discrepancy between educational performance and measured 61
intellectual ability and who exhibits a disorder in one or more of the 62
basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using 63
language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in a diminished 64
ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell or to do mathematical 65
calculations; 66
(20) "Mental disability" refers to an individual who has a record of, or 67
is regarded as having one or more mental disorders, as defined in the 68
Bill No.
LCO No. 3954 4 of 4
most recent edition of the American Psychiatric Association's 69
"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders"; [and] 70
(21) "Gender identity or expression" means a person's gender-related 71
identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that gender-related 72
identity, appearance or behavior is different from that traditionally 73
associated with the person's physiology or assigned sex at birth, which 74
gender-related identity can be shown by providing evidence including, 75
but not limited to, medical history, care or treatment of the gender-76
related identity, consistent and uniform assertion of the gender-related 77
identity or any other evidence that the gender-related identity is 78
sincerely held, part of a person's core identity or not being asserted for 79
an improper purpose; [.] 80
(22) "Veteran" means veteran as defined in subsection (a) of section 81
27-103; 82
(23) "Race" is inclusive of ethnic traits historically associated with 83
race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles; 84
and 85
(24) "Protective hairstyles" includes, but is not limited to, wigs, 86
headwraps and hairstyles such as individual braids, cornrows, locs, 87
twists, Bantu knots, afros and afro puffs. 88
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 from passage 46a-51