Laguna Passes First Anti-Discrimination Ordinance for AIDS

The Laguna Beach City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved Orange County’s first ordinance prohibiting discrimination against people with AIDS or symptoms of the deadly disease.

On a 5-0 vote, the council banned discrimination against people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome in employment, housing, medical and dental services, business establishments, city facilities, city services and other public accommodations.

The packed audience of about 70 people in the council chambers applauded loudly after the vote for the ordinance, which took effect immediately.

“This is a case where the people led and the leaders said, ‘Give us a chance to catch up,’ ” Councilwoman Lida Lenney said. “I feel privileged to have the opportunity to vote yes.”

In urging the council to approve the urgency measure, Laguna Beach attorney Sindee Smolowitz said: “This ordinance is an exceptional tool towards educating the public. . . . It demonstrates that we are not into panic and we are not into myths.”

Laguna Beach joins several other California cities that have passed AIDS anti-discrimination ordinances, including Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Riverside, San Diego and San Francisco.

Anyone found in violation of the Laguna Beach ordinance could be liable for up to three times the amount of damages that would be determined in a court of law, City Manager Kenneth Frank said. Those in violation also would have to pay attorney fees for the plaintiff.

The ordinance, which was drafted in January by the city’s AIDS education task force, also bans discrimination against anyone diagnosed with early symptoms of AIDS, anyone who has tested positive for the AIDS virus, or anyone thought to have “any condition or perceived condition related” to AIDS.

In February, 1987, the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission ruled that employers may not fire, refuse to hire or reinstate, or otherwise discriminate against anyone who has AIDS, or anyone thought to have AIDS or be at risk of contracting the disease.

But the state ruling requires only that those who lose their job because of discrimination be reinstated and reimbursed with any lost wages or costs.

Robert F. Gentry, the city’s mayor pro tem and a member of the task force, said the ordinance was not drafted to respond to any particular incident of AIDS discrimination in Laguna Beach.

“This is a preventive measure,” Gentry said, noting that Laguna Beach has the highest per capita number of reported cases of AIDS in Orange County.

As of April 28, Laguna Beach had 99 cases of AIDS, or 14.3% of the 690 reported cases of AIDS in the county, Gentry said.

The Laguna Beach ordinance is important in that it also protects the city’s large population of homosexuals from discrimination by anyone who would assume that they have AIDS simply because they are gay, according to Werner Kuhn, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center of Orange County. Gay men and intravenous drug abusers are considered at high risk of contracting AIDS.

Kuhn said an estimated 25% to 30% of the population of Laguna Beach is gay, compared to an estimated 10% for the county as a whole.

There have been only six to 10 reports of AIDS discrimination incidents reported in Orange County in the past 11 months, according to Donald Hartigan, senior consultant for the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing office in Santa Ana. He said he was unaware of how many of those incidents occurred in Laguna Beach.

Gentry said the AIDS education task force hopes the ordinance will be a “role model” that cities could use to pass similar ordinances. The city task force includes representatives from the media, religious organizations, education, gay rights groups, the businesses community and residents of Laguna Beach,

“I think the citizens see this as a very responsible thing to do in response to the epidemic,” Gentry said.

According to Kuhn, a countywide AIDS anti-discrimination ordinance is being proposed by the county’s Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus advisory committee. Kuhn, who is a member of the group, said he expects such an ordinance to come before the County Board of Supervisors in a few months.

But since a countywide ordinance would apply only to unincorporated areas of the county, Kuhn said he supports adoption of anti-discrimination ordinances in every city in the county.

“If one community in Orange County does this, I think you will find other communities taking a serious look at this” ordinance, Kuhn predicted. “This ordinance will be a tremendous help throughout the county by breaking the ice.”