This week, for the first time in over two decades, the United States will play host to the International AIDS Conference. The long wait is not without reason. In 1987, Congress passed legislation that prohibited people living with HIV from traveling into the country. With this and other policies rooted in such fear and prejudice, the international community understandably passed on bringing the AIDS Conference here. But in 2009, President Obama finally lifted the travel ban, stating that if the U.S. wants to be a world leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS, “we need to act like it.”
Thanks in part to this reversal, the United States is once again hosting the International AIDS Conference, and this year’s theme – “Turning the Tide Together” – tells a lot about how far we’ve come since the 1990's. Thanks to advances in modern medicine, HIV is a chronic, but manageable condition, and prevention strategies are improving around the world.
As we’ve come to understand HIV/AIDS better, so too have we strengthened our protections for people living with HIV, including anti-discrimination safeguards in housing, employment, and access to medical care. The ACLU has been a leader in fighting discrimination against people living HIV/AIDS, and we continue to work towards ending the prejudice, ignorance, and stigma that still surrounds HIV/AIDS.
Through the ACLU AIDS Project, we’ve pursued litigation challenging discrimination by government and private actors, and we’ve advocated for both state and federal legislation. In Congress, we are a strong supporter of the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act, which would establish a national framework to reform outdated criminal laws that target people living with HIV. We’ve also long called for a review of the lifetime ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men. That’s not a complete list of our work in the area, but it gives you a sense of the type of involvement we have, and our commitment to moving beyond the stigmas and prejudices of the past.
There’s still a long way to go on the march toward full equality, but much progress has been made and many bad policies have been righted along the way. The return of the International AIDS Conference to American soil serves as a perfect symbol of that.