Nail Salon Charged With Bias Against AIDS Victim

In what appears to be the first case of its kind, a trendy Sunset Boulevard nail salon has been charged with discrimination by the City of West Hollywood for refusing to give a pedicure to a hairdresser afflicted with AIDS.

West Hollywood City Atty. Michael Jenkins said Friday that Jessica’s Nail Clinic violated a municipal ordinance passed a year ago to discourage city businesses from denying employment, housing and commercial services to AIDS patients.

Jenkins and other attorneys acquainted with similar anti-discrimination laws in other cities said the misdemeanor charge against the salon could become the first legal test of efforts to protect AIDS victims from being denied commercial services.

“Our research hasn’t indicated any prior cases relating to discrimination in denying services provided to people with AIDS,” Jenkins said.

The City of Los Angeles, which has a similar law, has yet to file any AIDS discrimination cases, Jenkins said. And San Francisco Dist. Atty. Arlo Smith said that while his office is investigating allegations that an insurance firm refused to provide coverage to AIDS patients, a court case has not yet been filed.

Paul Jasperson, the AIDS patient who filed the West Hollywood case, said that his experience with the nail salon has left him angered about “people’s unreasonable fear of AIDS.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong other than the fact that I have this disease,” he said. “They hurt my feelings. People with AIDS are real people with real feelings.”

Appointment Canceled

Jasperson, 35, said that a July 24 pedicure appointment at Jessica’s had been canceled after a manicurist there overheard him telling a friend he had recently been diagnosed with AIDS. Jasperson, a West Hollywood resident who works at another salon in the city, said he tried to set later appointments, but was told by the clinic’s receptionist and later by the owner, Jessica Vartoughian, that no appointments were available.

West Hollywood Mayor Stephen Schulte said the City Council passed the AIDS discrimination ordinance precisely to help AIDS patients like Jasperson. “We firmly believe that, based on all the available medical evidence, AIDS is not transmitted by casual contact,” Schulte said.

City Atty. Jenkins said he met with Vartoughian and her attorney, Joseph B. Copelan, last month in an attempt to resolve Jasperson’s complaint. “We offered them a way out,” Jenkins said, “if they would agree not to discriminate against persons with AIDS, provide service to Mr. Jasperson and educate their employees about AIDS. They declined to do any of those things.”

After filing the criminal complaint earlier this month, city process servers have had trouble locating Vartoughian. “We have been unable to set an arraignment date because we have not been able to serve Mrs. Vartoughian,” Jenkins said.