Lambda Legal filed a legal challenge to the U.S. military policy that prevents people living with HIV from enlisting in the U.S. Armed Forces, according to a press release.
The current policy requires that applicants for appointment and enlistment, as well as individuals (Isaiah Wilkins, Carol Coe and Natalie Noe) being inducted into military services, be screened for HIV and denied entry if they test positive.
Lambda Legal and co-counsel Winston & Strawn LLP, Perkowski Legal, PC, and Scott A. Schoettes, Esq. filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of three individual plaintiffs who have been denied enlistment based on their HIV status. The organization Minority Veterans of America is also a plaintiff.
The filing comes after Lambda Legal celebrated the Biden administration’s announcement in July 2022 that it will no longer defend restrictions that prevented HIV-positive servicemembers from deploying and commissioning as officers.
The entire press release is at http://www.lambdalegal.org/news/us_20221110_ll-to-challenge-military-policy-preventing-people-living-with-hiv-from-enlisting.