Obama lifts ban on US entry for those with HIV

[Yazman]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091030/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_aids

Snippet from source:



WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Friday the U.S. will overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year.

The order will be finalized on Monday, Obama said, completing a process begun during the Bush administration.

The U.S. has been among a dozen countries that bar entry to travelers with visas or anyone seeking a green card based on their HIV status.
"If we want to be the global leader in combatting HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it," Obama said at the White House before signing a bill to extend the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program. Begun in 1990, the program provides medical care, medication and support services to about half a million people, most of them low-income.

The bill is named for an Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion at age 13. White went on to fight AIDS-related discrimination against him and others like him and help educate the country about the disease. He died in April 1990 at the age of 18.
His mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, attended the signing ceremony, as did several members of Congress and HIV/AIDS activists.

Thoughts?

[Uncle Hank]

Unless the people with HIV are like Cartman is South Park and purposefully give others HIV or whatever it was that he did, this is a good thing. People with HIV deserve to be treated not as second class citizens but as the men and women they are. There's no good reason for this kind of treatment, acting like those with HIV are contagious.

[The Author]

I agree. The law was passed during the time of the Reagan Administration when HIV and AIDS were looked at as a kind of evil plague and the lack of information at the time led to a great sense of paranoia against people who were infected from sexual encounters or bad medical blood or fluid transfusions. Now that there are countless medicines to suppress the disease and there are a lot of preventive measures such as efficient contraceptives and monitoring blood transfusions at hospitals (unless they cut corners...) this law is totally unnecessary.

[The Broke Cycle]

I think it is a good idea, assuming certain safeguards are put in place.

Thanks to the Catholic Church and sexual conservatives, many parts of the world do not understood, do not use and look down upon condoms and other contraceptives.

I would feel much more joyous about such a good decision if I could be assured that those with HIV, traveling into the United States, are made aware of the options they have.

[Pierson's]

Unless the people with HIV are like Cartman is South Park and purposefully give others HIV or whatever it was that he did, this is a good thing. People with HIV deserve to be treated not as second class citizens but as the men and women they are. There's no good reason for this kind of treatment, acting like those with HIV are contagious.
people who do that need to be treated as anti-social, and rejected from joining a community because they are a danger. simply having hiv does nto make one danger though.

I would feel much more joyous about such a good decision if I could be assured that those with HIV, traveling into the United States, are made aware of the options they have.

sex ed as part of the application process :lol: that's a good idea. alright kids, err, sorry, ladies and gentlemen, here's how you put on a condom. yes i know it's a banana, you have to put it on the penis when you hvae sex though.

[Vanguard1917]

There should be no laws against immigration in the US, HIV or not.

[The Broke Cycle]

people who do that need to be treated as anti-social, and rejected from joining a community because they are a danger. simply having hiv does nto make one danger though.


sex ed as part of the application process :lol: that's a good idea. alright kids, err, sorry, ladies and gentlemen, here's how you put on a condom. yes i know it's a banana, you have to put it on the penis when you hvae sex though.

Well a pamphlet in their native language would probably do... ;P

[Dr Mindbender]

Holy shit, i didnt even know there was a ban in the first place. :confused:

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

it makes no sense at this point to try to contain HIV via travel restrictions
for decades the trend has been Americans spreading HIV to other countries and not the other way around
great move, Barry

[The Broke Cycle]

it makes no sense at this point to try to contain HIV via travel restrictions
for decades the trend has been Americans spreading HIV to other countries and not the other way around
great move, Barry

What?

Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about.

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the adult population of North America is one of the lowest in the world. Combined with the fact that North Americans account for a very small share of global population, it is pretty clear that everything you just said is absurd.

[Dimentio]

Good move.

But I guess FOX will attack him for this one too. Gosh, would be fun if Barack actually was as radical as FOX and friends are depicting him.

[Patchd]

I agree. The law was passed during the time of the Reagan Administration when HIV and AIDS were looked at as a kind of evil plague and the lack of information at the time led to a great sense of paranoia against people who were infected from sexual encounters or bad medical blood or fluid transfusions. Now that there are countless medicines to suppress the disease and there are a lot of preventive measures such as efficient contraceptives and monitoring blood transfusions at hospitals (unless they cut corners...) this law is totally unnecessary.
I was going to thank your post, then I saw you wrote that because now there are more preventative measures, the law restricting travel for HIV positive people is now unnecessary, it was unnecessary to start with. The restrictions brought about were done under a homophobic nature, which went alongside the Reagan administration's complete blind-eye towards the HIV problem as it was 'the gay disease', hence groups like ACT-UP forming.

[Jazzratt]

I can just hear the be-mulleted bigoted pricks already. Something about a flood of disease riddled deviants come to bring down the great nation with their sordid disease. Maybe some of the more loony ones will say it's a plot on the part of Obama to reduce the American population.

Basically the law preventing entry of HIV positive people was a fucking crock of shit since that twat Reagan introduced it and it didn't stop being one. It's understandable, perhaps, wanting to block entry for or at least temporarily quarantine people with disease that are highly contagious and transmit themselves in an airborne fashion or through casual contact but it takes far more effor than that to contract HIV from a positive person. It's good that this law was repealed but it really says something about the current system that it was allowed to exist in the first place.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

What?

Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about.

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the adult population of North America is one of the lowest in the world. Combined with the fact that North Americans account for a very small share of global population, it is pretty clear that everything you just said is absurd.

"one of the lowest" means absolutely nothing
Americans are the ones travelling all over the place spreading HIV, not Zimbabweans (a fifth of whom have AIDS)

[The Broke Cycle]

"one of the lowest" means absolutely nothing
Americans are the ones travelling all over the place spreading HIV, not Zimbabweans (a fifth of whom have AIDS)

Again, you obviously have no idea what you are talking about.

In Africa, for instance, AIDS is spread through unprotected sex and certain social customs (i.e. traditional ceremonies that involve the exchange of bodily fluids). It is also spread via mother-to-offspring transmission.

It is absolutely not spread by HIV positive Americans flying into the country and fucking a couple dozen people each. In fact, I suspect that what you are trying to claim is based more on the desire to bash Americans than it is any credible scientific or social research.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

We're not talking about how HIV is spread among a given population or how it became an epidemic in Africa, but how it is spread accross international borders. If international travel is to be blamed, Americans have not been the victims, they have been the propagators of the virus. Sexual tourism figures support this.

The US, btw, is not among the countries with the fewest cases. It certainly isn't among the most affected, but it is also not among the former.

[h9socialist]

I still think that, deep down, Obama is basically a good guy. It's the system he's trying to manage that's the real problem.

[Oneironaut]

I think this is great news! I wonder now if this will open up the doors to more refugees from South Sudan to enter into the States. Before, even if someone had managed to get through all of the international agencies' paperwork and only had one more step to gain a visa, a blood test, their application would be denied if they were HIV positive.