In one of the strongest rulings in years for people living with HIV, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that the US military cannot discharge or bar from becoming an officer HIV-positive service members solely because they’re infected with the virus.
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema’s decision was following lawsuits of two service members that the Air Force attempted to discharge and of Army National Guard’s Sgt. Nick Harrison who was denied a position in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps.
The Air Force claimed that the two airmen could no longer perform their duties due to the frequent deployment requirements of their career fields and because they can’t be deployed to the US Central Command’s area of responsibility – where most airmen are expected to go – due to their condition
The Central Command prohibits personnel with HIV from deploying without a waiver.
The airmen, who filed their lawsuit n 2018, argued that they present no real risk of transmission to others and can easily be given appropriate medical care tanks to the major advancements in treatment.
The preliminary injunction barring the discharge of the airmen was upheld by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020 which described the military’s rationale for prohibiting deployment of HIV-positive service members as outmoded and at odds with current science.
Judge Brinkema’s written order bars the US military from taking such actions against any asymptomatic HIV-positive service member with an undetectable viral load that was, up until now, classified as ineligible for worldwide deployment due to their HIV-positive status.
Stressing in his statement that the US military was the last employer in the country that had a policy against people living with HIV and wasn’t subject to rules that prohibit discrimination based on HIV status, plaintiffs’ attorney Peter Perkowski called the decision the biggest ruling in favor of HIV-positive people in the last two decades.
It’s still unclear if the Department of Defense intends to appeal the ruling.
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