On Sept. 30, Pete Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary, said that male members of the military will need to shave or find other employment.
“We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans,” he said. “Today, at my direction, the era of unprofessional appearance is over.”
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said on Tuesday that he and three fellow Senate Democrats, Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) wrote to Hegseth last month urging him to pause the new policy in order to make sure that those with religious reasons to wear facial hair are able to do so.
“Given the deep and profound importance of religious accommodation to certain Sikh, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Rastafarians and other servicemembers currently serving our nation, we urge you to pause the memo’s 60-day implementation timeline to gather more information and issue further clarifications,” the senators wrote.
