The End of the Road for the HIV Travel Ban

by Michael Jones · 2010-01-04 05:40:00 UTC
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HIVHow about starting off the first Monday of 2010 with some good news? Scratch that. Make that awesome news. Because today marks the end of a 22-year-old policy that was not only discriminatory and homophobic, but detrimental to public health.

Since 1987, people from foreign countries with HIV/AIDS were not allowed to enter the United States. That kept partners away from each other. That kept family away from each other. And it prevented the United States from effectively hosting conferences on international HIV/AIDS, since people living with HIV/AIDS were just about universally excluded and stopped at their home airports.

But not anymore. President Obama has axed the HIV travel ban, and though the move comes 22 years too late, it sends an important notice to the world that the U.S. is moving in the direction of fighting this global epidemic without fighting the people who have HIV/AIDS.

President Obama has previously said that the ban was "rooted in fear rather than fact." (Huh, kind of sounds like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act, too!) But in moving to end the HIV travel ban, the U.S. can also move forward with plans to host a 2012 international conference on HIV/AIDS.

For their part, Immigration Equality, a group that worked tirelessly to lobby the White House to overturn the HIV travel ban, said that the original ban was pointless, and an irresponsible move to deal with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. Goes to show that it might take only moments to pass a bad law, but years (or in this case, decades) to overturn it.

"At long last, people living with HIV will no longer be pointlessly barred from this country," said Rachel Tiven, Executive Director of Immigration Equality. "Every day, Immigration Equality hears from individuals and families who have been separated because of the ban, with no benefit to the public health. Now, those families can be reunited, and the United States can put its mouth where its money is: ending the stigma that perpetuates HIV transmission, supporting science, and welcoming those who seek to build a life in this country."

Sounds like the perfect way to wake up on the first Monday morning of 2010.

(Photo courtesy of state.gov)

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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