Source: Associated Press and BBSNews
Gay-rights activists are hoping to use a global AIDS relief bill supported by the Bush administration to repeal a 15-year-old law restricting travel to the U.S. by HIV-positive people.

Activists oppose the near-ban as discriminatory since HIV is the only medical condition singled out in the Immigration and Nationality Act for inadmissibility.

Since 1993, the INA has designated HIV as grounds for inadmissibility to the US. A cumbersome waiver option is available to those wishing to enter this country, but the process is highly restrictive. These obstacles result in an almost wholesale rejection of any HIV positive individual from the United States, no matter their reason for entry.

President Bush acknowledged that the waiver system was a problem on World AIDS Day in 2006 when he asked the Department of Homeland Security to streamline the process. However, the proposed regulations are arguably more restrictive and intrusive. 

Now language in a bill extending the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) would delete the restriction. The bill, which directs billions to AIDS programs worldwide and is enthusiastically supported by President Bush, is set for a vote Thursday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

A House version of the bill does not include language repealing the travel ban. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who along with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has introduced stand-alone legislation to change the ban, said supporters thought it would be easier to get the provision through the Senate. They will try to ensure it stays in the final version of the bill.

Kerry and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.)  last year introduced legislation that would have repealed the provisions that bar HIV positive individuals from entering the United States, including HIV positive doctors and experts, as well as refugees seeking asylum.

Lee and Kerry joined Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese on a conference call Tuesday to push for reversing the ban.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights has enthusiastically endorsed the bill, as well as the Human Rights Campaign.

"The time is long overdue to repeal this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV positive individuals inadmissible to the United States," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "This law emerged out of fear and stigma, and there remains no public health rationale for treating HIV more harshly than other communicable diseases. We salute the leadership of Senators Kerry and Smith and urge Congress to end this draconian policy."

Kerry said that putting the language into the funding bill "means that we are one step closer to ending a counterproductive travel ban stigmatizing HIV positive doctors and AIDS experts."

He added, "This law was written when little was known about the disease and destructive stigmas often won the day. With new knowledge about the disease, we must make it clear that this discriminatory, draconian law will no longer be tolerated."

Because of the travel ban, international conferences on HIV/AIDS have been closed to the United States -- hampering the country's ability to take a leadership role in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. The United States is one of only 13 countries that have an HIV travel ban, among countries like China, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan.

"The United States is a country founded on the principles of acceptance and freedom and should not forbid individuals with HIV -- including AIDS experts -- from entering the United States," Smith said. "It's time to get rid of this thoroughly outdated law."

John Bradshaw, JD, Washington Director of Physicians for Human Rights said, "We welcome language in the PEPFAR Reauthorization bill that would lift the ban on travel to the US for people with HIV. More than 700 doctors, nurses, and public health experts recently wrote the government asking them to overturn this ban. It clearly violates the human rights of people with HIV and has stigmatized them for 15 years. It's time for the U.S. to treat visitors living with HIV with dignity, as other countries do. There have never been public health grounds for denying people living with AIDS admission to the United States, and there are none now."

Full article: Kerry-Smith Seeks to Repeal Ban on HIV Positive Travel and Immigration | BBSNews
Congress May Strike HIV Travel Limits | Associated Press