U.S. Senate takes first major step towards repealing the draconian HIV ban!
For the first time, the U.S. Senate has acted to strip the draconian measure from the books
By Doug Haxall, Out4ImmigrationThursday, July 17, 2008
Out4Immigration applauds the U.S. Senate for approving the repeal of a discriminatory law barring HIV-positive persons from visiting or immigrating to the United States. This draconian and reactionary rule has been in place since 1987 and has prevented thousands of HIV+ men and women from entering the country. Making matters worse, the rule has become entirely anti-gay and discriminatory in its application since the enactment of a "waiver" provision that allowed heterosexual HIV+ persons to enter the country as long as they could prove they were married!
Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) secured a provision to repeal this ban in the Senate's legislation to reauthorize PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The PEPFAR bill passed the Senate today with the Kerry-Smith provision by a vote of 80 to 16 and now moves to conference committee before being sent to the President.
The bill now moves to a conference committee with members of both the House and Senate who need to reconcile different versions of the PEPFAR legislation before passing it along to the President for approval.
Out4Immigration also applauds Congresswoman Barbara Lee for introducing legislation in the U.S. House to repeal the HIV ban. The inclusion of her bill's language into the conference committee's PEPFAR bill would bring the two bills into alignment.
< Back to Legislation Updates Index
