U.S. Senate Passes Bill To Repeal HIV Travel Ban

Blogger (and HIV-positive immigrant) Andrew Sullivan is ecstatic about the United States Senate's 80-16 vote approving the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) bill on Wednesday. Included in the bill was the Smith-Kerry Amendment that would repeal the United States' ban on travel and immigration by HIV+ individuals. Joe.My.God clarifies the significance of the vote (if the bill becomes law):

1. People with HIV are now eligible to visit and immigrate to the United States.
2. Third world countries will get desperately needed funds to fight AIDS.
3. Opposition to Elizabeth Dole's re-election has been supercharged.
4. Andrew Sullivan gets to stay in the United States.

Congratulations are in order to Rachel Tiven, Executive Director of Immigration Equality, the national LGBT organization devoted to advocating on behalf og HIV+ and LGBT imigrants.

From the Los Angeles Times article:

The legislation now goes to a House-Senate conference committee, where lawmakers can work out differences before sending the measure to Bush.

[...]

One provision in the Senate bill would end a ban on immigration and travel to the U.S. by people with HIV. It would lift the 1993 prohibition imposed by Congress and allow the Department of Health and Human Services to decide whether to take HIV off its list of communicable diseases. The disease has been on the department's list since 1987.

"The key piece is that Congress should not substitute its judgment for the judgment of Health and Human Services," said Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, a New York-based group that advocates repealing the ban. "Public health should be left to the public health experts."