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This just in from our friends at Lambda Legal!...

State Department Lifts HIV Travel Ban
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**Breaking News **

We were headed to trial in less than two weeks, set to challenge the U.S. State Department's blanket ban on hiring people with HIV to be Foreign Service Officers.

But today the State Department has lifted the ban.

It has issued new guidelines for people living with HIV under which it will evaluate them on a case-by-case basis, as the law requires. This is a huge victory for people living with HIV.

"At long last,the State Department is taking down its sign that read 'People with HIV need not apply,'" says Lambda Legal's HIV Project Director, Bebe Anderson.

We've been fighting this case on behalf of our client Lorenzo Taylor for the past five and a half years. We also waged a massive public advocacy campaign, collecting 17,000 signatures from people around the country who spoke out against this policy. Today we can all take heart that the State Department heard our voices.

Partly due to the new guidelines, Lorenzo has decided to settle his lawsuit. "I wanted to serve my country as a Foreign Service Officer, but was told, 'Sorry we don't need your kind,'" Lorenzo says. "Now people like me who apply to the Foreign Service will not have to go through what I did. They and others with HIV will know that they do not have to surrender to stigma, ignorance, fear, or the efforts of anyone, even the federal government, to impose second-class citizenship on them. They can fight back."

Lorenzo's case is a stark reminder of the type of discrimination that people with HIV continue to face in the workplace.

This year on May 15 thousands of people around the country will come together for Clock In: Pledge-a-Thon for Workplace Equality. This will be Lambda Legal's second annual workplace day of action, and we're hoping to make it even more successful than last year.

Take the workplace equality pledge. We'll be sending you more information about Clock In in the upcoming weeks.
http://ga4.org/campaign/clockin

Meanwhile you can help us celebrate — and be prepared for future issues — by making a gift now!
http://ga4.org/ct/BpAkjDK1WXP7/