FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | October 30, 2009

President Obama Announces Final Rule Ending Ban on HIV-Positive Immigrants

A Statement from Executive Director Kate Kendell

(San Francisco, California, October 30, 2009) — The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) praised President Obama’s announcement today that a final rule repealing the ban on entry to the United States by people with HIV will be published on Monday, November 2. The repeal will take effect in early January, 2010.

Statement from Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights:

“The ban on entry by HIV-positive immigrants and visitors to the United States has devastated countless lives since it was put in place 22 years ago. That exclusionary policy was rooted in baseless, outdated fears of casual HIV transmission, and unfairly stigmatized people with HIV and AIDS. The ban has been particularly harmful to LGBT immigrants and their families, preventing some of the most vulnerable individuals who need to escape violence or threats of harm in their home countries from finding shelter here. We applaud President Obama for completing the repeal effort begun by Congress and President Bush last year and ending this discriminatory ban once and for all.”

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education.
www.nclrights.org.

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