Kerry Applauds End of Discriminatory Travel Ban

[ProSense]

10/30/2009

Kerry Applauds End of Discriminatory Travel Ban

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, today applauded the long overdue enactment of his legislation by the Obama Administration to finally end a travel ban that prevented those with HIV from entering the United States.

Since 1987, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) contained a provision to bar HIV positive individuals from travelling or immigrating to the US, including HIV positive doctors and experts, as well as refugees seeking asylum. No scientific evidence supported the ban as effective for disease control or to curb costs to the public health care system.

“Today a discriminatory travel and immigration ban has gone the way of the dinosaur and we’re glad it’s finally extinct. It sure took too long to get here,” said Sen. Kerry. “We’ve now removed one more hurdle in our fight against AIDS, and it’s long overdue for people living with HIV who battle against stigma and bigotry day in and day out.”

“At long last, our nation’s unjust policy of excluding HIV-positive visitors and immigrants has ended,” said Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign. “We applaud the leadership of our allies in Congress, especially Senator Kerry, and of President Obama and Secretary Sebelius in bringing this discriminatory chapter of our history to a close.”

“People living with HIV will no longer be pointlessly barred from this country,” said Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality. “We are proud to have been part of a tremendous coalition, including Senator Kerry, former Senator Gordon Smith, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who have worked tirelessly to repeal this ban. 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.”

In 2008, the Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation Kerry co-authored with former Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) to lift the statutory travel and immigration ban as part of the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) reauthorization.

[Hippo_Tron]

1. Hell yes!

[karynnj]

2. Here is a happy article on that

President Obama also announced the end of a long-standing ban on HIV-positive visitors to the United States. The ban had been in place since the 1980s, when the means of transmission of the virus was poorly understood; in 1993, however, long after it was known that HIV cannot be casually transmitted, Congress acted to reaffirm the ban. In 2008, President George W. Bush signed legislation to rescind the ban, but nonetheless, still-extant U.S. Department of Health & Human Services regulations prevented HIV-positive travelers from entering the country without first obtaining difficult-to-secure visas. As a result, sixty Canadian would-be participants in the North American Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit in Washington, D.C. last June were denied permission to enter the United States.

GLBT equality lobbying organization the Human Rights Campaign issued a press release praising Obama. Said Joe Solmonese, the head of the group, "We thank the President for taking these tremendous steps today on behalf of people with HIV and AIDS. Today’s actions signal both to Americans and to the world that the United States is a nation that will care for those most in need at home and will no longer close the door to HIV-positive people abroad. Today, President Obama has extended one of our nation’s proudest responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and finally erased on our of most shameful."
<snip>
In 2008, the Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation Kerry co-authored with former Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) to lift the statutory travel and immigration ban as part of the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) reauthorization.

http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=98415

[Cha]

3. Bringing us out of the

Dark Ages.

[karynnj]

4. It is still amazing that Kerry and Smith got that amendment included

(in an election year, no less.)

[Cha]

6. It is

Amazing!

[karynnj]

5. The usually obnoxios wonkette is actually good on this

Great news, everyone: America is now .0000000001% less insane and bigoted! Barack Obama signed a final administrative repeal today of the Jesse Helms-authored travel and immigration ban on persons with HIV/AIDS. It only took 22 years for our government to realize that the HIV virus is not the very contagious “gay flu.”

You can thank George W. Bush (R) and John Kerry (D) and ex-Sen. Gordon Brown (R) (R-D-R!) for passing this repeal last year (it took them another year to rewrite the rules, officially, or something), which faced no real opposition from anyone except David Vitter, the member of Congress most likely to have secret AIDS.

http://wonkette.com/411916/aidsies-finally-allowed-to-fly-all-over-the-place