Reaction is still coming in after the release of surveillance video showing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to a San Francisco hair salon. That salon was supposed to be closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Pelosi is insisting she was told one customer at a time was allowable.
Pelosi also claims she was setup, Fred Jones, Legal Counsel for the Professional Beauty Federation of California, doesn't accept that explanation. He condemned her actions in a scathing interview.
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Official Response from the Professional Beauty Federation of California:
Since 1999, the Professional Beauty Federation of California has striven to give voice to California’s 621,000 hair/skin/nails licensed professionals and 53,000 licensed barbering/beauty establishments. In recent months, we have been very active in trying to get our so-called “nonessential” but safe businesses back in operation, including a federal lawsuit filed against Governor Newsom on May 12 and a concerted #OpenSalonsNow campaign.
The Governor’s recently announced tiered reopening schema locks out 87% of our skin/nail salons for at least the next 21 days! And he continues to delegate executive and final approval to County health officers, notwithstanding our industry has been STATE licensed since 1927! Counties like San Francisco have refused to allow all indoor salon services for nearly 6 months!
Our entire industry was appalled at the hypocrisy and flaunting of lockdown orders displayed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, yesterday. How dare our rulers go about their lives, maskless and in open defiance of the rules they have imposed upon our state licensed beauty professionals!
Our’s is a livelihood dominated by women, immigrants, LGBT and people of color. But because our personal services sectors are the quintessential small businesses who lack political clout, we have been marginalized, disrespected and exploited by California’s ruling class.
While we are grateful that an 80 year-old woman was willing to expose the lie behind the socalled (but never disclosed) “science” justifying the lockdown of our safe salons, the hypocrisy of Speaker Pelosi’s brazen defiance has infuriated tens-of-thousands of salon owners. We know, as does Nancy, that our salons are safer environments than dental offices, big box and home improvement stores, grocers, and other so-called “essential” businesses.
All of our barbering/beauty licensed professionals have received hundreds of hours of State Board of Barbering & Cosmetology approved education and training in cross-contamination and disinfection protocols. Our licensed professionals have invested considerable resources into PPE and other COVID-compliant safety protocols, which even the CDC has publicly promoted. Hundreds of thousands of California women and immigrants deserve better from our Governor, the Speaker of the House and the so-called “health experts” who refuse to allow them to legally and safely operate their small businesses. #OpenSalonsNow