Trump Quietly Starts Firing Servicemembers Living with HIV Just Before the Holidays

[Demovictory9]

https://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20181219_trump-quietly-starts-firing-service-members-living-with-hiv#.XBtusd02LsM.twitter

Today, Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN, with partner law firm Winston & Strawn, filed a lawsuit on behalf of two HIV-positive members of the United States Air Force who were given discharge orders just days before the holiday season. Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN filed the lawsuit, Roe and Voe v. Mattis, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

As detailed in a Washington Post exclusive, the case was filed anonymously to protect the plaintiffs’ medical privacy. The plaintiffs received notification just days before Thanksgiving, denying their discharge appeals despite compliance with fitness assessments and medical treatment, as well as strong support from commanding officers. Nevertheless, the plaintiffs were found “unfit for continued military service.”

“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,” said Scott Schoettes, Counsel and HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal. “These decisions should be based on science, not stigma. Lambda Legal is suing to stop these separations and will not stop 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.”

The lawsuit challenges the Pentagon’s discriminatory deployment policies, which prevent servicemembers living with HIV from deploying outside the United States without a waiver. For years, these policies have restricted the opportunities of servicemembers with HIV. Now these same deployment restrictions are being used to justify separating servicemembers solely based on HIV status.

The “Deploy or Get Out” policy, unveiled by the Trump administration in February 2018, directs the Pentagon to identify servicemembers who cannot be deployed to military posts outside of the United States for more than 12 consecutive months and to separate them from military service. Since current U.S. military policy identifies servicemembers living with HIV as non-deployable, they face immediate discharge under this Trump policy.

https://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20181219_trump-quietly-starts-firing-service-members-living-with-hiv#.XBtusd02LsM.twitter

[duforsure]

1. I hope

This and all the other cruel things he's done is taken into consideration at his sentencing.

[Achilleaze]

2. The republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief routinely pisses on...

our American military personnel.

Dishonorable (R).

[Takket]

3. Too bad MSM has no time to cover this

What with the wall to wall coverage of his visit to Iraq and the 100% support he has from all the troops there.

[JennyMominFL]

4. Its been this way.

I was diagnosed HIV pos in 1990 while on AD in the Marines. I was discharged. I got full bennies though, retirement pay and VA benefits. This is not a new policy

[Gothmog]

5. trump is a feeble minded idiot