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The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland on Oct. 9 filed a discrimination complaint on behalf of a hair stylist who was dismissed from his job at a Prince George’s County hair salon in August after he disclosed to his supervisor that he had just tested positive for HIV.

ACLU of Maryland Legal Director Deborah Jeon said her organization is especially troubled that the Greenbelt Hair Cuttery informed Brandon Smith in a dismissal letter that it was required to let him go under a Maryland regulation prohibiting someone from working as a hair stylist who has an infectious or contagious disease such as HIV.

The ACLU said in a statement that it has sent a letter to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing & Regulations requesting a clarification of the state regulation cited by the Hair Cuttery to justify its dismissal of Smith on Aug. 5, 10 days after he disclosed his HIV status.

“You don’t get HIV by having your hair cut, and we cannot allow unfounded fears to drive workplace discrimination against Marylanders living with HIV,” Jeon said in the ACLU statement released on Thursday.

“The sole reason for the termination was the Hair Cuttery’s contention that the Code of Maryland Regulations provision governing cosmetologists prohibits the salon from continuing to employ someone who tests HIV positive,” Jeon said in an Oct. 9 letter to Leonard J. Howie III, secretary of the state’s Department of Labor, Licensing & Regulations.

“The Hair Cuttery fired Brandon Smith notwithstanding the fact that he did not pose a significant risk to the health or safety of others, the applicable legal standard,” Jeon said in her letter.

A spokesperson for the Hair Cuttery didn’t respond to calls from the Washington Blade for comment on the ACLU complaint, which the legal group filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The ACLU statement says the Hair Cuttery’s action violates the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which, among other things, prohibits discrimination based solely on someone’s HIV status.

Spokespersons for Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and the Department of Labor, Licensing & Regulation couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

David Paulson, a spokesperson for Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, said a 1996 opinion issued by then-Maryland Attorney General Joseph Curran, Jr., states that state and federal law prohibited HIV discrimination against electrologists, who were licensed by the state to engage in the practice of hair removal involving the application of needles and electrical instruments.

Paulson said he wasn’t certain whether this opinion would apply to the field of cosmetology, but he would make inquiries with the office’s attorneys to find out.

The ACLU statement says the Hair Cuttery’s Greenbelt salon was instructed to dismiss Smith by officials with the Vienna, Va., based Ratner Companies and Creative Hairdressers, which are the salon chain’s parent companies.

The statement says Smith was first hired by the Greenbelt salon in January 2012 as a part-time receptionist while attending school to become a hair stylist. It says he was promoted in February 2013 to the position of stylist and in October 2013 he became one of the salon’s two assistant managers.

“He had an excellent employment record, got along well with clients and colleagues, and loved working there,” the ACLU statement says.

“On July 24, 2014, Smith learned he had tested positive for the HIV virus,” says the statement. “He went to work the same day and his manager, Christina Stewart, found him crying in the break room before he started his shift. Smith confided his condition when she asked what was wrong, thinking he should be honest,” the statement says.

“She responded coldly, asking, ‘What have you been doing?’ Unbeknownst to Smith, Stewart promptly reported his illness to corporate managers,” according to the statement.

The statement says two officials from the Ratner Companies confronted Smith on Aug. 5 when he reported to work to inform him his employment was being terminated “because he had HIV — explicitly confirming this in writing.”

“This experience has been extremely traumatic, like they kicked me when I was down,” Smith is quoted as saying in the ACLU statement. “Since then, I am having trouble paying my bills and feel betrayed and hurt in a way I have never felt before. That is why I am stepping up to help anyone else who might have the same thing happen to them.”