HIV

Today, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on behalf of William “Liam” Pierce, after the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s office rescinded a job offer as a Sheriff’s Deputy because he is a person living with HIV.

The fourth annual National Day of Action to End Violence Against Women Living with HIV (“Day of Action”) could not be more timely with the recent allusions to “quarantining” people living with HIV, and long-overdue attention finally be paid to issues of violence and harassment against women.

Governor Jerry Brown today signed into law landmark legislation to reform outdated laws that unfairly criminalized and stigmatized people living with HIV.

California Senate Bill 239 is a long-overdue update of California’s outdated and discriminatory criminal laws targeting people living with HIV.

Just as Larry Kramer and the other leaders of ACT UP got angry — and exhorted all of us to get angry — during the worst years of the AIDS crisis, it is time to get angry again. We are once again facing a federal government that seems indifferent to the crisis at hand, because it is primarily affecting communities about which the current administration does not care—transgender people, gay and bisexual men of color and people of color more generally.

The AHCA’s effects on people living with or at higher risk for HIV could be devastating. And for those for whom multiple systemic oppressions intersect, the AHCA could be deadly.

"Lambda Legal will continue to fight on behalf of all people living with HIV, particularly HIV-positive health care workers, to ensure they are protected in the workplace."