Feisty Aphrodite Archives
State Dept. Drops Ban on HIV-Positive Diplomats
The following is from 365Gay.com:
After a five-year long Lambda Legal lawsuit, the U.S. State Department has revised its rules so that people who are HIV-positive are no longer automatically disqualified for the U.S. diplomatic corps.
The State Department says that as of Friday it has revised the way it determines if prospective foreign service officers meet medical requirements to work anywhere in the world.
People with HIV will be now considered for the foreign service on a case-by-case basis, as are those with other medical conditions like cancer. The change was enacted after consultations with medical experts and followed the settlement of a lawsuit filed by an otherwise qualified man who was denied a diplomatic job because of his HIV-positive status.
"We are extremely pleased with this change," said Bebe J. Anderson, HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal. "The new guidelines mean that candidates for Foreign Service posts who have HIV will now be assessed on a case-by-case basis, as the law requires. At long last, the State Department is taking down its sign that read 'People with HIV need not apply.'"
The new guidelines come less than two weeks before a trial scheduled in the HIV discrimination case Taylor v. Rice, which sought to overturn the State Department's blanket HIV hiring ban. Lambda Legal represents Lorenzo Taylor, who was denied employment by the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer after disclosing his HIV status.
