New law bans discrimination against persons wearing hairstyles

SAN JUAN (CMC):

The governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia, on Wednesday signed a law that prohibits discrimination against people wearing Afros, curls, locs, twists, braids and other hairstyles across the US territory.

The move was celebrated by those who had long demanded explicit protection related to work, housing, education and public services.

While Puerto Rico’s laws and constitution protect against discrimination, along with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, a precedent was set in 2016 when a US Court of Appeals dismissed a discrimination lawsuit and ruled that an employer’s no-dreadlock policy in Alabama did not violate Title VII.

Earlier this year, legislators in the US territory held a public hearing on the issue, with several Puerto Ricans sharing examples of how they were discriminated against, including job offers conditional on haircuts.

According to the US Census – with a population of 3.2 million, Puerto Rico has more than 1.6 million people who identify as being of two or more races, with nearly 230,000 identifying solely as Black.