Connecticut Joins Growing List of States to Ban Hairstyle Discrimination

Seyfarth Synopsis: Connecticut Joins Its Tristate Neighbors by Becoming the Eighth State to Formally Amend Its Anti-Discrimination Laws to Include Hairstyle Discrimination as a Form of Race-Based Discrimination. This Law will Become Effective Immediately Upon Governor Lamont’s Signature, Expected in the Coming Days.

On March 1, 2021, the Connecticut State Senate unanimously passed the Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair Act (“CROWN Act”), which amends the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act (“FEPA”) to make clear that hairstyle discrimination is included in the existing prohibition on race-based discrimination.  This legislative amendment follows similar amendments passed within the past few years in California, New York, and New Jersey, among other states and jurisdictions.

The CROWN Act amends the FEPA by clarifying that the existing ban on race-based discrimination includes discriminating against employees and applicants on the basis of “ethnic traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles.”  The amendment further states that the term “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.”  

As we have discussed in previous client alerts (here, here, here, and here), Connecticut’s adoption of the CROWN Act represents a continued trend to expand existing anti-discrimination laws to explicitly include hairstyle discrimination.  California and New York were the first to adopt versions of the CROWN Act in July 2019.  Those two states amended their respective anti-discrimination laws to clarify that the term “race” includes “hair texture and protective hairstyles,” including “braids, locks, and twists,” such that the existing prohibitions on racial discrimination also prohibit discrimination against Black people because of hairstyles closely associated with being Black.  New Jersey followed suit in December 2019.  Since then other states, such as Virginia, Washington, Colorado, and Maryland have passed nearly-identical versions of the CROWN Act, as have local jurisdictions, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Broward County, Florida.

Connecticut employers should review their grooming or personal appearance standards, as well as training materials, to ensure all relevant policies comply with this legislative amendment.  Employers should also review their grooming or appearance policies to ensure they are facially neutral and should consider whether the application of these policies or other actions related to the hair of an applicant or employee might be deemed discriminatory in a specific instance or context.