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US Drops Ban on HIV-Positive Diplomats
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Associated Press
2/15/2008
"Under pressure from a lawsuit, the State Department is changing rules that had disqualified HIV-positive people from becoming U.S. diplomats.
"Effective Friday, the department removed HIV from a list of medical conditions that automatically prevent foreign service candidates from meeting an employment requirement that they be able to work anywhere in the world.
"...The decision was hailed by Lambda Legal, a New York-based group that advocates for the civil rights of LGBT people and those with HIV and represented the plaintiff in the lawsuit against the State Department.
"The new guidelines mean that candidates for Foreign Service posts who have HIV will now be assessed on a case-by-case basis, as the law requires," said Bebe Anderson, the organization's HIV project director."