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 Section 46a-51 of the general statutes is repealed and the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