This isn’t getting much notice but it deserves your attention. The senate is currently debating the reauthorization of PEPFAR, the omnibus AIDS prevention and treatment legislation. This reauthorization also includes a repeal of a travel ban on people with HIV. Basically, people with HIV can’t visit the United States and they can’t become citizens if they’re here. Since the US doesn’t require HIV tests for foreign travelers, obviously, a lot of people can slip through unnoticed. But it’s a ban that affects a lot of people and one which we share with a handful of the world’s dictatorships and authoritarian regimes like Sudan, Russia, Libya and Saudi Arabia.
The law was the product of ignorance and prejudice when it was first enacted in 1993. And there’s no reason to keep it on the books now.
But apparently two senators — Sessions of Alabama and Vitter of Louisiana (who of course we know is a serial user of prostitutes, so maybe he should get tested himself) — have put holds on the legislation. So they need 60 votes to override their objection. The vote may come as soon as today. If you’re from those states it’s worth making your voices heard on this one. And if you’re not from Alabama or Louisiana, see whether your senators are willing to vote to override the hold and let us know what you hear.
