The march to Dhimmitude continues apace...and it's wearing a beard

When Dinah thinks beard, she thinks ZZ Top.

Judge rules for bearded DC firefighters...and it's not because they're Amish beatniks or anything like that.
A federal judge on Friday struck down a requirement that firefighters in the District of Columbia be clean-shaven.

A group of firefighters who wear beards for religious reasons first sued in 2001 to challenge the fire department's "grooming policy." That policy was replaced with a safety policy in 2005 that held that beards are not compatible with breathing units because they make it impossible to form a tight seal around the face...
Many fire departments bar or restrict facial hair among firefighters. In 2005, a judge in Philadelphia ruled that a firefighter could not wear a beard on the job, even though his Muslim faith calls for it.

Funny that. The Iranians suffered high casualties when exposed to mustard gas during the Iran - Iraq War because their beards interfered with their gas masks.
Iranian soldiers often had gas masks, but their beards made it more difficult to 'get a good seal between the mask and face', says Roberts. They also lacked protective clothing, leaving them vulnerable to mustard gas.

Just in case you wondered: Taliban beard rules
Taliban's religious police carry around with it a Lantern glass to ensure minimum size of citizens' beard under Shariat enforced in their controlled areas, a refugees who recently arrived from Kabul said. Anybody's beard which is too short to crop out of the standard Lantern glass is punished just as anyone who either shave of or trims his beard, the refugee added.

And then there's this The Beard in Islam.

From one brother to another, I say: "Grow a beard, then, since it also promotes Brotherhood in the real world. Stand with your Brothers, be one. We know you think you are handsome without it (a beard), but who cares? What matters is how Allah (S.W.T.) sees you. And when you do grow a beard, don't mock the Sunnah, please grow it correctly, i.e. FIST LENGTH. That is the prescribed length and no shorter (see Hadeeth section)..." Peace.

And don't forget The Beard in Iran where there are no gays...
In gay slang, a beard is a companion of the opposite sex used to hide a homosexual's sexuality by appearing in public as if the two were a heterosexual couple.