U.S. House Passes Bill Banning Hairstyle Discrimination

The U.S. House passed a bill that would prohibit hair discrimination in employment, public accommodations, housing, and other venues, after the lower chamber failed to pass the legislation with a two-thirds majority in February.

The House advanced the bill (H.R. 2116) with a vote of 235-189 on Friday, moving closer to legally clarifying that race discrimination doesn’t exclusively translate into adverse actions taken based only on a person’s skin color.

The bill would bar discrimination against locs, braids, Bantu knots, and other hairstyles to make uniform the hodgepodge of state laws against this form of bias, as well ...