Just in time for the holidays, Donald Trump has discharged two U.S. Air Force service members for being HIV-positive.
The two airmen filed a lawsuit yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. They say the Pentagon’s decision to discharge them over their HIV status violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause and federal law.
Washington Post reports:
Both active-duty airmen said they tested positive for HIV last year during Air Force screenings. After they started antiretroviral treatments, their doctors deemed them asymptomatic and physically fit to deploy, and their commanders backed their continued service. They intended to pursue lengthy Air Force careers after serving for more than half a decade in logistics and maintenance roles.
To add insult to injury, the airmen were were given discharge orders just days before Christmas.
How about we take this to the next level?
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“It’s disgusting that the Trump Administration is sending some men and women in uniform home for the holidays without jobs simply because of their HIV status,” Scott Schoettes, Counsel and HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal, says.
“These decisions should be based on science, not stigma. Lambda Legal is suing to stop these separations and will keep fighting until President Trump understands that there’s not a job in the world a person living with HIV cannot safely perform, including the job of soldier.”
Trump’s “Deploy or Get Out!” policy went into effect October 1. It orders the Pentagon to deny people living with HIV from enlisting in the Armed Forces and deems current soldiers living with HIV “non-deployable” then orders the Pentagon to discharge anyone who cannot be deployed outside of the country for longer than 12 consecutive months.
“What we’re really asking for here is that HIV be treated the same as any other medical condition in terms of evaluating whether or not you can deploy with it,” Schoettes says. “It shouldn’t be carved out and specifically categorized as ‘you are non-deployable once you have this.’”
“It’s disheartening to say the least,” one of the airmen tells Washington Post. “I know for a fact that I am very good. I know I’m good at what I do, and I’m not being afforded the opportunity to give the Air Force what I know I’m capable of doing.”
Related: Trump is now turning his attention to purging all HIV-positive soldiers from the military
Brian
“discharge anyone who cannot be deployed outside of the country for longer than 12 consecutive months”
If this is the rationale, then is the Pentagon also discharging all of the injured and the old? Lots of the generals are elderly and overweight. People serve in administrative roles (which make up the majority of the armed forces anyway).
This seems like another biased idea dressed up to sound logical, but surely it’s being applied on whims.
Chrisk
President bone spurs knows a lot about how to get out of military service after all. Except these are people that actually want to be there.
t
I want to believe that it’s his ignorance that says he thinks you can catch it by breathing on someone but we all know it’s the more about the bigotry and hatred toward his stereotype of who contracts it. I have faith that what goes around comes around and I look forward to being able to take a dump on his grave, wherever that may ultimately be.
jr-nj
Lock him up. It’s time.
#lockhimup
jsmu
@jr-nj It was time twenty years ago.
fur_hunter
EXCUSE ME!!???…….Have we reverted back to the Reagan error???? DAMN! The ignorance regarding HIV and AIDS is incredibly PROFOUND with this administration and those associated with it! MORONS! I hope the guys win their lawsuit. There is NO reason they shouldn’t. OK…FOLKS!!! 2 more years! Get off your @$$es and VOTE!!! And we can get a new administration in 2 more years. If you get out there and VOTE!!!!!! By the way…..Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. Maybe next year will bring good tidings. We can only hope.
druidjr22
It’s scary the amount of propaganda that is still controlling people’s attitudes and decisions when it comes to Hiv; people who don’t understand that prep is over 99 percent effective or that undetectable means it is completely impossible to transmit the virus both of which Are easily discovered w a simple google search. Personally I would never let someone’s ignorance affect my life and would
Never disclose my status were I verifiably undetectable since it’s effectively the same as being on prep but I digress. If misunderstanding and ignorance due to propaganda is still
So rampant it’s because of a President who is so embarrassingly stupid he comes across as mentally ill, or a perfect copy of Mr Garrison on South Park who became a version of President Trump and goes around fu*king people to death which totally seems like something Pres. aSshat would do. I see adds on tv for Prep still misleading the Public stating it isn’t completely
Effective in preventing the contracting of HIV which we know to be false if one
Follows the directions. I had to educate a damn pharmacist on what undetectable means in terms of transmission and if a medical professional still doesn’t get it how can we expect a mentally ill commander in chief to get it? Or the average citizen without the same resources? It’s unfortunately not surprising that this happened and really sad.
jsmu
Rapeublic*nt hatred, bigotry, and ugliness knows no bounds. Merry CTHULHUmas, Twitler!
Mick406
It is utter fallacy to say that President Trump fired these two guys. Presidents don’t fire people down in the Enlisted ranks. Even if their immediate commanders approved of keeping them, they didn’t have the authority of going against directives. And those directives come thru the medical board.
I ended my time in the military in 2007. Back then, and many years previous to my discharge, NO ONE could serve if they were HIV positive. Trump did not invent this rule. It came from the medical directors. Also, this “Deploy of Get Out” thing? That’s been around for at least 2 decades. We were ALL subject to that. That is a clause on page 4 of the Enlistment Contract. There are 5 “profiles” in the military. If you were flagged for any one of those profiles, you had 6 months to fix whatever your medical problem was or you had to get out. Most people were endangered of having to leave the military because of being overweight. I know. I had the same problem. I got on a ‘list’ that red-lined me from deployment. It was called “The Fat Boy” list. They didn’t want anyone going to a combat area who could have a heart attack and endanger the mission. I lost the weight and was able to stay.
I become unglued when I read these stories blaming the President for everything, where he is always tarred and feathered for things he had nothing to do with. I bet he has never heard of these two guys. In the unit I served in, they would have been disassociated with. No one wanted to serve with people tainted with ANY disease.
Wicked Dickie
You do know there was a time when being gay was “incompatible” with military service and gay members were discharged. Guess where the orders came from, the Commander-in-Chief, AKA, The President. I don’t think you’re prior military at all.
Chrisk
@Mick406. Yeah funny how this and blocking transsexuals from serving never happened under Obama. Of course Trump had nothing to do with any of it.
Who ya trying to fool Mick? Lol
Mick406
I beg your pardon! I certainly served! Vietnam 1968-1970. US Army Reserves 1982-2007. I am very aware of the “no homos allowed” rule, and was very fearful for a long time for I held a very high position at Division level.
Aires the Ram
I knew this story had a lot of holes in it, I was just waiting for someone to write in who actually knew the military’s policies and procedures. The voice of reason Mick, thank you for clarifying.
Vince
Yes we knew some of the queer trumpanizie supporters would come out to support this.
niles
This is BS, but why oh why, if someone is so intent on an armed forces career, would they be so careless as to acquire HIV? Today, we know how it is transmitted and how to protect yourselves. It’s not hard or complicated.
Aires the Ram
@niles: Anybody can acquire HIV. Even the most careful. Shaming people who happened to contract HIV is very wrong. Military OR Civilian. If you don’t have HIV, then “by the grace of God go you”.
djmcgamester
Yeah, because it’s not like people aren’t taking risks on a constant basis. We take the risk or not and live with the consequences. I’m sure shaming them will make everything better.
djmcgamester
Maybe this is a special case. I don’t know. Do these guys require medication on a regular basis? I ask because I have a seizure disorder and the reason I was told I couldn’t join the military is because there was the risk that I’d be deployed long term and be unable to get medication. The seizures are relatively minor but I still need the medication. If the same is true of these guys. We don’t know their sexuality so there’s no claims of LGB (T is an issue) discrimination.
NCSilverBear
By Trump’s own “standards” then, he should be “discharged”. He is and has always been, physically (and morally and mentally) incapable of serving.
Jimmer
Mick406, you are incorrect about being discharged for HIV. I tested positive in 1992 just before the Reduction In Force (RIF). I was not on the RIF list though I was no longer allowed to fly as a navigator or deploy. The USAF did every thing they could to keep HIV+ airmen on active duty and this was at a time when HIV suppressing drugs were only semi-effective. The HIV+ positive military personnel left by choice or by disability retirement because the virus was making them to sick to work.
This “deploy or be discharged” is a new policy created by the Trump administration. Any policy his administration writes he owns, he has the ultimate responsibility. So, all you Trump loving Trolls need to get off the LGBT news sites unless you are here to support our community. And for you Trump loving LGBT men and women, I hope you realize you are supporting an administration that believes you are a second class human or worse wants you to not exist.
ShowMeGuy
Are military personnel who develop diabetes discharged? It seems when you strip Diabetes and HIV down to their core foundations……they are very similar as far as the characteristics and level of engagement they both require to combat them in order to maintain the quality of health of a person who would have either one. Also if both are fundamentally the same…can a person with diabetes or HIV enlist in the military? It seems both of those medical issues would be grouped together as for how the military would deal with them.