When the ban on HIV-positive travelers visiting the United States was lifted last January, a decades-old, discriminatory policy was finally laid to rest.
While the policy, which went into effect in 1987, was fought for years by health and social advocates, the efforts of Immigration Equality and other organizations that advocate for equal treatment of HIV-positive individuals finally paid off.
Since its founding in 1994, Immigration Equality has been the leading national organization fighting for equality under U.S. immigration laws for LGBT and HIV-positive individuals, and has been working to win congressional support for a reform of U.S. immigration statutes.
Rachel Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, recently talked with BIZ about the role Immigration Equality played in the repeal of the HIV travel ban, the legislators who helped get the ban lifted, and what the repeal means for business in America.
BIZ: The HIV ban on travel and immigration to the United States was recently lifted. What role, if any, did Immigration Equality play in advocating for the lift of the ban?
RT: We were really gratified to play a role in the repeal of the HIV ban because it was an issue we were involved since our founding. For many, many years in which it didn't look like an issue that was going to move, we invested in research, writing, and advocating for ways the ban could be removed or ameliorated, and we were very gratified when Congress introduced legislation in the Senate to repeal the ban.
We worked closely with the office of Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., at the time of her initial introduction of the [U.S. House version of the] legislation in 2007. Then Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and his office asked Immigration Equality to provide spokespeople who were affected by the ban to offer real-life examples of how the ban was affecting some couples, and asked us to put together a coalition of not-for-profit organizations around the U.S. that would sign onto a letter for repeal. We pulled together a list of more than 200 organizations that were committed to ending the ban.
BIZ: What are the implications and the significance of having the HIV ban lifted?
RT: For BIZ readers, this means that business travel and scientific travel is no longer limited. [During the 20 years that the ban was in place,] commerce and science had really been restricted. No major AIDS conferences have taken place in the U.S. in 20 years as a direct result of the HIV travel ban. But as soon as the repeal was enacted, the 2012 International AIDS Conference was scheduled in Washington, D.C.
For foreign business travelers who wanted to enter the U.S. for a one-day business meeting and weren't able to do so, that is now a thing of the past.
People who are interested in how the HIV travel ban affects them and their employees should visit http://www.immigrationequality.org/, which also has a lot of information for foreign nationals who are already in the U.S.
For more from Rachel Tiven, see Part I of the interview .
