End in sight for ban on HIV-positive travelers?

By Matthew Link

The year was 1987, at the height of the AIDS scare in the United States. On a bill to fund availability of the AIDS drug AZT, Sen. Jesse Helms from North Carolina added on an amendment that barred HIV-positive travelers from entering the United States, making America the most unfriendly nation in the world for HIV travelers.

In fact, in April 1989, Dutch AIDS educator Hans Verhoef was jailed for several days in St. Paul, Minnesota, when he tried to enter the U.S. to attend an AIDS conference, leading to international outrage and a boycott of HIV conferences by activists. No international conference on HIV/AIDS has been held in the United States since then. (There have been waivers for Gay Games participants in 2006, as well as for HIV-positive participants in the 2006 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS.)

Well, the times they are finally changing. In 2007, Rep. Barbara Lee of California and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts sponsored the HIV Nondiscrimination in Travel and Immigration Act, which will reverse Helms’ policy. The bill is currently being reviewed in committee, and many say will pass this year.

"It’s incredible that the federal government still tolerates a ban that not only restricts AIDS experts with the disease, but also refugees who are seeking asylum in our country," Kerry said. "My legislation will end this draconian law."

Personally, it still strikes me as incredible that the U.S., with its history of accepting the tired, the poor, and the wretched refuse of other shores allowed this law to stay on the books for so long. Maybe now America will finally deliver on its promises to indeed the most outcast people in the world.

Related Orbitz resources:

• Gay travel

Matthew Link is the Editor At Large for The Out Traveler magazine, as
well as a contributor to Newsweek. Having been to over 60 countries and
all 7 continents doesn’t keep him from getting on the next plane away
from his home in New York City.

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