Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994 TAG: 9403200059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Communities - including Roanoke - cracked down.
City Council adopted an ordinance in 1976 that imposed regulations on people who operated massage parlors. It banned massages of the opposite sex for hire.
And it put Roanoke's "massage parlors" out of business.
The city's massage regulations had exempted hospitals, nursing homes, medical offices, physicians, surgeons, physical therapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, the YMCA and the YWCA. Those professions and businesses were allowed opposite-sex massages.
The regulations did not exempt qualified therapists who had completed training courses at institutions certified by professional organizations.
Last week, Roanoke City Council adopted an ordinance amendment that adds those therapists to the list of exempted professions and businesses.
"We probably should have included that occupation in 1976, when this ordinance was first adopted," City Attorney Wilburn Dibling said. "There's a legitimate occupation that wants to provide this service. And there's probably not any legal reason why the city should prohibit it."
Dibling said he received several inquiries from people in the past decade about the ordinance's restrictions on massage therapists. But those people "didn't follow through," he said.
"The person who made the inquiry recently has been most interested," he said.
That person was Jade Daniels. As a licensed massage therapist, she has been fighting to shake a label of illegitimacy that has been placed on a legitimate profession.
"It's a growing field, and you want to be proud of what you do," said Daniels, a former fitness director at the Roanoke YMCA who wants to open a massage therapy clinic. "Even doctors in the health profession have started to become more aware. But that law was put on the books to prevent prostitution."
Daniels has borne the brunt of skewed perceptions.
In 1986, she was charged with violating the massage ordinance, specifically the portion that prohibits massage of the opposite sex.
A customer had walked into her studio, where she taught tai chi and aerobics, and asked for a massage. Daniels complied. Minutes later, Roanoke City vice officers entered the studio.
Her customer, it turned out, was a Roanoke police officer. Daniels was arrested.
She pleaded no contest in General District Court to the misdemeanor charge. A judge found her guilty and fined her court costs.
But on appeal, the prosecution and defense attorneys filed a joint motion that the case be dismissed. A judge ruled it was clear that Daniels' actions were not what the ordinance had set out to control.
Daniels has since worked with city administrators to enact a change in the ordinance. It has boiled down to education, she says.
"I understand that their business is protecting people," she said. "And they've been protecting Roanoke from the negative influences of what used to be massage parlors.
"But [massage therapy] is a real growing profession. Most fitness facilities have them," Daniels said.
"And I would rather work with the city officials to make a change rather than against them. We found a positive way to approach the situation."
by CNB