News

Bearded protesters lash out against discriminatory bill, claim to be ‘born this way’

1,450 Comments
Caption
The owners of facial hair such as this could be subject to discrimination under Senate Bill 1042, which was passed by state Legislature on Friday and is awaiting a decision from Gov. Jan Brewer. (Fu Manchu/PD)

Protesters marched Monday on the Capitol to urge Gov. Jan Brewer to veto Senate Bill 1042, which some believe could be used to discriminate against people with beards.

“If you take away our rights, we will take away our razors,” one protester with a beard reaching his nether regions called through a megaphone.

The bill, passed by state Legislature on Friday, is only one line long, something opposers say will be used for broad interpretations.

Senator Jill Etté, who wrote the bill, said modern society has been “hijacked” by people with beards, or “those lumberjack hipsters.” In order to protect society for “the modern gentleman,” Arizona should only support clean-shaven faces.

“Business owners have the right to refuse service to people with beards if it offends their delicate sensibilities,” reads SB 1042, nicknamed Senate’s Beard by protesters.

Brewer, who returned to Arizona from Washington D.C. on Monday, has been coy with the press and avoided giving any details that would hint at how she will respond to the bill.

The opposition argued that the law could lead to hairy situations. They said men with beards were not being treated as equal citizens. Some said the law would even discriminate against women.

“Some women have beards,” lead protester Chin Muffler said.

Opposition leaders also questioned what qualifies as a beard and whether length would be a factor.

Legislators amended the bill before it passed on Monday to clarify a beard to mean any facial hair longer than a five o’clock shadow.

“If we’re talking about a six o’clock shadow, that’s over the line,” Sen. Nair said.

Protester Jaw Bristle was infuriated by the amendment. He said his beard naturally grows quickly and sometimes he has to shave twice a day.

“I can’t help the way my beard grows,” Bristle said. “I was born this way. What do you expect me to do? Carry a razor in my bag and shave during my lunch break?”

Sen. Etté said opposers were attempting to turn the bill into a straw man with “outlandish claims as dirty as their beards.”

Additional controversy broke Monday night when protesters accused Americans Defending Faces, the bill’s main backer, of receiving funding from razor companies. Although Executive Director Nota Fuzz denied the claims, photos emerged on social media of her handing out razors during an ADF meeting. The American Facial Liberties Union of Arizona has spoken out against the bill.

Local business owner Jennifer Klenly said she supported the bill and hoped other facial hair would also be included.

“I don’t think I can serve someone with a mustache if I believe in goatees,” Klenly said.

Klenly, who owns a coffee shop, said a man with a mustache once entered her store. He bought a cup of coffee, drank it and then left the cup at the table.

“It was a truly frightening experience,” Klenly said. “I was shaking the rest of the day.”

Klenly refused to comment further after she was asked if her shaking was related to high intake of caffeine.

Other downtown residents, however, were upset with the bill. Some took to wearing shirts that said, “I mustache you a question, do you believe in beard rights?” Others grew their beards or wore fake costume beards to stand in solidarity with the opposition.

“Wait, I’m confused, what’s the bill against again?” downtown resident Nicole Green said. “When has there ever been a problem with bearded men?”

1,450 thoughts on “Bearded protesters lash out against discriminatory bill, claim to be ‘born this way’”

  2. Thanks for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research about this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more from this post. I’m very glad to see such great info being shared freely out there.

  3. Hi there, I found your website by way of Google whilst searching for a related matter, your site got here up, it seems great. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.

  4. I keep listening to the newscast lecture about receiving free online grant applications so I have been looking around for the top site to get one. Could you advise me please, where could i acquire some?

  5. Hello just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the images aren’t loading correctly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different internet browsers and both show the same results.

  6. I’ve been browsing on-line more than three hours nowadays, but I never discovered any attention-grabbing article like yours. It’s beautiful price sufficient for me. Personally, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you probably did, the web will likely be a lot more useful than ever before. “Where facts are few, experts are many.” by Donald R. Gannon.

  8. The very heart of your writing while sounding reasonable at first, did not work properly with me after some time. Someplace throughout the paragraphs you actually managed to make me a believer unfortunately just for a short while. I however have got a problem with your leaps in assumptions and you would do nicely to fill in those gaps. If you actually can accomplish that, I could certainly be amazed.

  11. Thank you for helping out, fantastic info. “The four stages of man are infancy, childhood, adolescence, and obsolescence.” by Bruce Barton.

  14. I?¦ll immediately clutch your rss feed as I can not to find your e-mail subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Please let me understand so that I could subscribe. Thanks.

  17. Wonderful beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your web site, how could i subscribe for a blog website? The account aided me a acceptable deal. I had been a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast provided bright clear concept

  18. This is the suitable weblog for anybody who desires to find out about this topic. You realize so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I truly would want…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a subject thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just great!

  19. Please let me know if you’re looking for a article author for your blog. You have some really good posts and I think I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d love to write some material for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please shoot me an email if interested. Regards!

  21. My programmer is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on several websites for about a year and am nervous about switching to another platform. I have heard fantastic things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into it? Any help would be really appreciated!

  22. There are some attention-grabbing deadlines on this article but I don’t know if I see all of them middle to heart. There is some validity however I’ll take maintain opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we wish extra! Added to FeedBurner as effectively

  23. Simply want to say your article is as astonishing. The clearness in your post is simply nice and i could assume you are an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please continue the rewarding work.

  24. Hi! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!

  25. I haven’t checked in here for a while as I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are great quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my everyday bloglist. You deserve it my friend :)

  26. Great – I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your website. I had no trouble navigating through all tabs and related info ended up being truly simple to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it at all. Reasonably unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or something, web site theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Excellent task.

  29. You actually make it seem really easy along with your presentation but I find this topic to be really one thing that I feel I would by no means understand. It sort of feels too complicated and extremely extensive for me. I am taking a look forward on your next put up, I will attempt to get the cling of it!

  30. I would like to thnkx for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I am hoping the same high-grade blog post from you in the upcoming as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own blog now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings quickly. Your write up is a good example of it.

  31. Great – I should definitely pronounce, impressed with your website. I had no trouble navigating through all tabs and related information ended up being truly simple to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it in the least. Quite unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or anything, site theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Nice task..

  33. Howdy, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam responses? If so how do you reduce it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me insane so any support is very much appreciated.

  34. Excellent post. I was checking continuously this weblog and I am inspired! Very useful information specifically the closing part :) I maintain such information much. I was seeking this certain info for a very long time. Thank you and good luck.

  36. Hello there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok. I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.

  44. This is a very good tips especially to those new to blogosphere, brief and accurate information… Thanks for sharing this one. A must read article.

  46. Oh my goodness! a tremendous article dude. Thanks Nonetheless I’m experiencing difficulty with ur rss . Don’t know why Unable to subscribe to it. Is there anybody getting an identical rss downside? Anybody who is aware of kindly respond. Thnkx

  47. Thank you a lot for sharing this with all of us you really know what you are talking approximately! Bookmarked. Please also seek advice from my site =). We could have a link exchange contract between us!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *