CALIFORNIA ALBUM : Santa Cruz Grants Anti-Bias Protection to the Ugly

Starting this week, this quiet university beach town promises to give a little extra protection to ugly people.

Same for fat people, skinny people, short people, tall people, scarred people, toothless people or anyone else with physical characteristics that might make them a target of discrimination.

All will enjoy special legal standing under the state’s most unusual anti-discrimination law, one that as of Thursday will forbid job or housing bias on the basis of height, weight or “physical characteristic.”

Like a handful of California cities, Santa Cruz also plans to prohibit bias based on sexual orientation. The new law here goes farther than others, specifically banning discrimination against someone because they had a sex change operation.

Here in Santa Cruz, a melting pot of old hippies, computer hackers, undergraduates and fundamentalist Christians 75 miles south of San Francisco, the new law passed last month has provoked a reaction that ranges from praise to scorn.

“It’s a basic issue of fairness for people,” said City Councilman Neal Coonerty, a bookstore owner who sponsored the law. “People should be judged on the basis of real criteria, their ability to perform the job or pay the rent, and that should be the sole criteria.”

Fundamentalist churches led the opposition to the law, objecting to the ban on discrimination against gays and lesbians.

The law also has created some anxiety among employers who fear that they will have to hire workers with multicolored mohawks, nose rings and garish tattoos.

“If someone has 14 earrings in their ears and their nose--and who knows where else--and spiky green hair and smells like a skunk, I don’t know why I have to hire them,” said Kathy Manoff, who with her husband operates Manoff’s Rancho Burger in downtown Santa Cruz. “Is that bias? What happened to the rights of the employer?”

Santa Cruz is not sure it wants the glare of nationwide scrutiny that the “Looks Law” has brought this town of 49,000, a once-fashionable seaside resort better known now for its University of California campus and heavy damage from the Loma Prieta earthquake.

At least three businesses that considered moving here backed out because of publicity over the law, said Mike F. Schmidt, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.

“It brought a lot of unnecessary attention to the town at a time when we’re trying to attract business,” said Schmidt, a former hippie who wears a Beatles tie emblazoned with yellow submarines. “If you walk around this town, you’ll see every color and size working side by side. For the most part, we didn’t feel we had a problem.”

But the chamber ended up endorsing the idea of a strong anti-discrimination law, after winning concessions that eased the fears of business owners.

As rewritten, nothing in the law will prevent a business from adopting a dress code for employees. Moreover, the law will not protect workers who purposefully changed their appearance, such as adorning their body with jewelry or selecting an unusual hair color or style.

“It’s not an impediment to doing business,” Schmidt said. “I think it’s a good ordinance that should be a model for other communities that intend to go down this road.”

Coonerty said his interest in the law was sparked by the story of a woman, weighing about 300 pounds, who applied for a job as a clerk in a natural foods store. Among other things, the position entailed stocking shelves on narrow aisles and climbing ladders.

The store chose another candidate for the job, and told the woman she was rejected because of her weight.

Coonerty called the law a serious attempt to prevent discrimination against many vulnerable people, especially older women who have difficulty getting jobs because of their weight or looks.

“Most of the discrimination based on height, weight and physical characteristics is discrimination against women, about 90% of it,” the councilman said. “It’s very much of a women’s issue.”

Santa Cruz has long been regarded as a city able to embrace a variety of cultures. The beaches and historic boardwalk lure surfers and tourists. UC Santa Cruz, on a hill north of town, draws young people from around the state.

Long hair and tie-dyed T-shirts are common, which with the area’s several nude beaches and co-ed bathing establishments are reminders that Santa Cruz is a haven for California’s dwindling population of hippies. The city also has a reputation of tolerance for gays and street people.

But even in tolerant Santa Cruz, some workers said job and housing discrimination is a fact of life.

“You go to one place and you have to be a hippie, another place you have to be New Age,” said Brynn Cecconi, a sales clerk at the Pipeline T-shirt shop. “At other places, I’ve had problems getting a job because I wasn’t a university student.”

Most businesses in town are small and family run. Many are still struggling to recover from the 1989 earthquake. In the downtown area, for every structure that has been repaired, an empty lot sits nearby.

Some employers, irritated with yet another set of government restrictions, describe the new law as merely symbolic. Indeed, it may not stand for long because of a pending court challenge to Los Angeles’ anti-discrimination law. The challenge contends that state law preempts such local ordinances.

Nevertheless, many of the city’s workers and jobless in Santa Cruz applaud the new protections.

“I love it,” said Smiley Rogers, a sales clerk at Bead It, a popular bead store, who has a full beard, ties his long hair in a ponytail and sports a button that says, “Proudly Serving My Corporate Masters.” “It gets everyone down to an equal level.”

Andrea Gallagher, a sales clerk at Camouflage, a clothing and sex toy shop, agreed. “I don’t think there should be discrimination against people for any reason,” she said. “You can’t help how you’re born. People come in all shapes and sizes.”