Jesse Helms HIV Travel Ban Update

Today, Immigration Equality will hold a press conference to raise awareness of the issue. Here's a fact sheet on the latest Bush administration proposal that would place new burdens on foreigners with HIV barred formally from entering the US. Here's a page where you can download a PDF guide to the policy in general. I wrote about it here. It's insane that in 2007, US policy on HIV should still be following the guidelines that Jesse Helms forged. Even Helms repented of his hostility to people with HIV in the end. But his law remains in place. Wouldn't it be a fitting legacy for this president's largely excellent record on HIV and AIDS if he urged Congress to get rid of this provision, which places the US in the same camp as Sudan and Saudi Arabia on treating immigrants and foreign tourists with HIV.