Senate Repeals HIV Travel Ban

Since 1993, U.S. border agents could deny entry to any tourist or immigrant with HIV. But that will likely change now. The Senate voted yesterday to repeal the ban, and the move is expected to be signed by President Bush.

“[F]or those of us who have long dreamed of becoming Americans, and have been prevented by 1993 law from even being able to enter or leave the US without waivers or fear or humiliation, this is a massive burden lifted,” Andrew Sullivan writes in Atlantic Online. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that it’s one of the happiest days of my whole life.” Sullivan called the ban “a relic of the days when HIV was a source of fear and stigma and terror.”

The U.S. wasn’t exactly in great company with the ban.

According to this report, “Only a dozen countries have bans on HIV-positive visitors, including Russia, Sudan, Saudia Arabia and Lybia.”

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