HB242 Alabama 2024 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Ben HarrisonRepresentative

Republican

Session

Regular Session 2024

Title

Anti-discrimination against military.

Summary

HB242 would make it illegal to discriminate against active-duty military members and their immediate families in education, employment, housing, health benefits, and other areas, with protections during deployment.

What This Bill Does

The bill creates broad protections against discrimination in education, employment, housing, public utilities, and public accommodations for service members and their immediate family. It also prohibits increasing education fees or tuition for them, requires employers to treat returning service members as if there was no break in employment for retirement and health benefits, and prevents lease terminations during active deployment. It further requires creditors to delay certain collection actions during deployment and establishes a private right of action for discrimination, with an effective date of October 1, 2024.

Who It Affects

• Active-duty service members and their immediate family members, who would gain protections against discrimination and new rights related to education, employment, housing, health benefits, and financial matters.
• Employers, educational providers, landlords, lenders/creditors, and public accommodations that interact with service members, who would be restricted in discriminatory practices and required to uphold the new protections.

Key Provisions

• Education: Prohibits charging higher application fees or tuition for service members and their immediate family.
• Employment: Prohibits adverse employment actions (termination, denial of initial employment, failure to retain or promote) based solely on military status or family relation; prohibits retaliation for exercising rights under military employment laws.
• Housing: Prohibits refusing to sell/rent or negotiate housing for service members and their families; prohibits increased security deposits.
• Public Utilities: Prohibits increased security deposits for service members and their families.
• Public Accommodations: Prohibits denial of public accommodations for service members with PTSD or seeking mental health services.
• Affirmative duties: Reemployed service members must be treated as if there were no break in service for pension and health insurance benefits; service members or their families may terminate residential or auto leases without penalty during active deployment; creditors must defer default judgments, evictions, mortgage foreclosures, and repossessions during active deployment; service members must inform creditors of deployment status within 30 days.
• Private right of action: Creates a private cause of action for discrimination under state law.
• Definitions: Establishes terms for active duty deployment, active duty military, immediate family member, and servicemember.
• Effective date: The act becomes effective on October 1, 2024.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 22, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.

Subjects

Military