Court Backs Salon in AIDS Victim Case

A West Hollywood ordinance outlawing discrimination against AIDS patients suffered a partial defeat Thursday when a Superior Court judge ruled that a nail salon cannot be forced to give a pedicure to a customer who admitted to being afflicted with the deadly virus.

The ruling made public Thursday was greeted with relief by the salon’s owner and outrage by AIDS patient Paul Jasperson and his attorney, Gloria Allred, who vowed to appeal the case to the California Supreme Court if necessary.

“There is absolutely no valid reason why I should not be entitled to each and every service available to any other citizen,” Jasperson, a 36-year-old hairdresser, said at a press conference.

Superior Court Judge Lawrence Waddington in a 14-page decision concluded that the risk of drawing blood in the process of performing a pedicure “exposes the cosmetician and other patrons to the risk of infection . . . any risk of death, however minimal, cannot be acceptable or tolerable.

Found Unenforceable

“In this case,” the judge explained, “the ordinance . . . fails to respect the defendant’s right not to be involuntarily exposed to a risk of personal harm.”

Waddington’s ruling doesn’t strike down the ordinance, but finds it unenforceable in this context.

The 1986 law, which is similar to one enacted by Los Angeles, failed its first test in court last April. In that criminal proceeding, based on the same case, a Municipal Court judge threw out misdemeanor charges against the owner of Jessica’s Nail Clinic.

The judge reasoned that while the law is generally valid, there is “an extremely small, but nonetheless real risk of exposure to AIDS from the procedures of a pedicure.” The city of West Hollywood is appealing that decision.

West Hollywood City Atty. Michael Jenkins, reacting to the latest ruling, said “this ordinance remains valid and enforceable against 99% of all the possible targets of discrimination.”

Both Jenkins and Allred said the real reason Jasperson was being denied the service was not just because he has AIDS, but because he admitted to it. “They are treating these people every day” without knowing it, Jenkins said about cosmetologists, dentists and doctors.