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Edition 45 - 5th Aug 2008
Attitude Matters
How we think affects what we say and do - so standing up for better attitudes towards people living with HIV is at the heart of George House Trust’s message for Manchester Pride
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Volunteers’ Big Impact
Volunteers led the first response to the HIV epidemic. Laura Hamilton, Volunteer and Development Manager, looks at how volunteers’ support is still changing living with HIV
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George House Trust is currently expanding its Positive Speakers
Programme as part of our wider campaign to challenge HIV related stigma and prejudice.
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GHT Homepage  News Another Step - USA HIV Travel Ban Made Illegal
23rd Jul 2008
Currently, people living with HIV cannot take advantage of the United States’ usual exclusion of British Citizens from the need to obtain visas to visit the country. People with HIV have to apply for a special waiver visa - a permission to enter despite having HIV. There is a legal presumption in the USA against allowing anyone with HIV into the country. Applying for the special waiver is a long and complicated process as well as profoundly stigmatising.
If however you enter the USA without the necessary visa and the immigration service finds out you have HIV, you are deemed to have committed immigration fraud and would be forcibly deported, and prohibited from ever entering the US again.
HIV is the only medical condition for which these rules apply. In fact most people with HIV travelling to the USA seem to take the risk and don't apply for the special visa. Most get away with it after following advice based on the experience of others.
Senate voted into law a clause against the ban
Last week the Senate voted to include an amendment on the ban, in legislation reauthorizing the Presidents’ Emergency Relief Fund. These changes weren’t challenged and are now embedded in the legislation.
In effect they mean the ban is no longer law but an administrative decision to be ruled on by the Department for Health and Human Services.
Campaigning to completely revoke the ban
While additional pressure will need to be brought to bear on the Department to completely revoke the ban, by far the largest obstacle has now been overcome and campaigners are hopeful that the changes needed will be made soon. People traveling without the visa could still face refusal of permission to enter, or if discovered, could be removed. This could now be challenged in a law court, but there is a risk of being put on a plane back to Britain.
Two years ago campaigners were told that the ban would never be overturned and this significant milestone shows just how far we’ve come.
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