AB 1815: Discrimination: race: hairstyles.

Existing law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, provides that all persons within the jurisdiction of this state are entitled to full and equal accommodations in all business establishments regardless of their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status.

Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, makes it unlawful to engage in specified discriminatory employment practices based on certain protected characteristics, including race, unless based on a bona fide occupational qualification or applicable security regulations, and prohibits housing discrimination based on specified personal characteristics, including race.

Existing law states the policy of the State of California to afford all persons in public schools, regardless of their disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other specified characteristic, equal rights and opportunities in the educational institutions of the state, and to prohibit acts that are contrary to that policy and to provide remedies therefor.

Existing law prohibits discrimination because of a perception that a person has one of those protected characteristics or is associated with a person who has, or is perceived to have, any of those characteristics. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act and public school policy define the term race for purposes of those provisions to include traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles, as defined.

This bill would remove the term historically from the definitions of race, thus defining race to include traits associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles, as defined, and would add those definitions for race and protective hairstyle to the Unruh Civil Rights Act.

This bill would declare that its provisions are declaratory of existing law.

This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 51 of the Civil Code proposed by SB 1137 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1137 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 12926 of the Government Code proposed by SB 1022 and SB 1137 to be operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last.