tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6660974939862189427.post-85353930539782118592008-02-19T10:13:00.000-08:002008-02-19T10:14:10.603-08:00State Department drops ban on HIV-positive diplomats<br />By Matthew Lee, Associated Press February 18, 2008<br /><br />WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under pressure from a lawsuit, the State Department is<br />changing rules that had disqualified HIV-positive people from becoming U.S.<br />diplomats.<br /><br />Effective Friday, the department removed HIV from a list of medical<br />conditions that automatically prevent foreign service candidates from<br />meeting an employment requirement that they be able to work anywhere in the<br />world.<br /><br />The change was made after consultation with medical experts and in response<br />to a lawsuit filed by an HIV-positive man who was denied entry into the<br />foreign service despite being otherwise qualified, the department said..<br /><br />Prospective diplomats with HIV will now be considered for the foreign<br />service on a case-by-case basis, along with those with other designated<br />ailments like cancer to determine if they meet the "worldwide availability"<br />standard, it said.<br /><br />Officials denied that the policy had ever intentionally discriminated<br />against HIV-positive people and noted that the policy had applied only to<br />incoming diplomats, not those who had contracted the virus or other<br />diseases while in the foreign service.<br /><br />"We have a policy requiring that all foreign service officers be worldwide<br />available as determined by a medical examination at the time of entry into<br />the foreign service," said Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman.<br />"That has not changed."<br /><br />The department's chief medical officer had "revised its medical clearance<br />guidelines on HIV based on advances in HIV care and treatment and<br />consultations with medical experts," Gallegos said. "The new clearance<br />guidelines provide that HIV-positive individuals may be deemed worldwide<br />available if certain medical conditions are met."<br /><br />The decision was hailed by Lambda Legal, a New York-based group that<br />advocates for the civil rights of homosexuals, bisexuals, transgender<br />people and those with HIV and represented the plaintiff in the lawsuit<br />against the State Department.<br /><br />"The new guidelines mean that candidates for Foreign Service posts who have<br />HIV will now be assessed on a case-by-case basis, as the law requires,"<br />said Bebe Anderson, the organization's HIV project director. "At long last,<br />the State Department is taking down its sign that read, 'People with HIV<br />need not apply.'"<br /><br />The change in policy came less than two weeks before the trial in the<br />lawsuit brought in 2003 by Lorenzo Taylor, a trilingual international<br />affairs specialist who passed the difficult foreign service application<br />process but was rejected after he told the department of his HIV status.<br /><br />"Now people like me who apply to the Foreign Service will not have to go<br />through what I did," Taylor said in a statement. "They and others with HIV<br />will know that they do not have to surrender to stigma, ignorance, fear or<br />the efforts of anyone, even the federal government, to impose second-class<br />citizenship on them. They can fight back."<br /><br />Lambda Legal said the suit had been settled "partly due to the new<br />guidelines," but the State Department said the policy switch was not part<br />of the settlement.<br /><br />"The change simply reflects medical advances in the area of HIV care and<br />maintenance," Gallegos said.<br /><br />Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.blogazarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06878063895859695898noreply@blogger.com