Obama's Continued Ban On People With HIV

The administration continues to enforce the ban on non-Americans living with HIV - against the will of the Congress and the views of president George W. Bush. Here's the latest example:

As global health leaders from around the world met in Seattle for the first day of the Pacific Health Summit 2009, one speaker was notably absent. Paul Thorn, a British activist scheduled to speak today, said he was denied a U.S. visa because he is HIV positive ...

"The U.S. government actively discriminates against people who have been tested for the HIV virus and have been diagnosed HIV-positive," he said in the statement ... Thorn said his application was turned down despite the interventions of Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Jim McDermott and appeals to the U.S. Consulate in London.

The U.S. policy gives people two choices: to lie on the application, committing a felony, or to be honest and have the visa rejected "because you are considered an undesirable person and unfit to enter the U.S.," Thorn said. "I don't want to be either, but being an undesirable seemed like the lesser of the two evils, so I decided to be honest."

When will this end? The Obama people won't talk to me on the record about this. Before the election, they were all about getting gay and HIV-positive support. Now they are threatening to deport some of us for having HIV. And my civil marriage in the eyes of Obama? Null and void - and no plans whatsoever to change that.

A round-up of the gay revolt against Obama's reversion to fear-ridden Clintonism here.