Earlier this year, U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema struck down the military’s discriminatory HIV policies in a landmark decision – ruling that there was no rational basis for the military’s ban and applying the equal protection clause to people living with HIV for the first time in history. Harrison v. Austin, No. 18-cv-00641, 2022 WL 1183767 (E.D. Va. Apr. 6, 2022).
However, long after that news made all of the nation’s headlines, the services are still far from implementing the court’s order:
– I still have not received an officer’s commission. No one has even reached out to me from the Pentagon. Instead, I have been pressured to just reenlist and to submit a new application — being pushed back through the military’s accessions process like a new recruit at the age of 45.
– The military services continue to assert the discretion to discriminate against HIV+ servicemembers who are undetectable by requiring service waivers even though the U.S. Secretary of Defense has made it clear that HIV is not, in and of itself, a disqualifying medical condition in his June memorandum ordering the military services to implement the court’s order.
– No action officer has even been appointed to implement the court’s order at the Army G-1 staff level. Nor has any concrete plan has been developed to begin revising the conflicting military service regulations, to educate and inform the force about the shift in policy, or to handle complaints arising from HIV stigma and discrimination.
– Senior defense leaders have gone no further than they have been forced to by the court’s order. After losing on every possible argument about overseas deployability, no one has acknowledged that there is no rational basis for continuing to exclude HIV+ recruits from joining the military. Instead, the government to prepare to defend a completely untenable legal position.
HIV+ servicemembers (like myself and the other plaintiffs in these court cases) have already done our part, making considerable personal and professional sacrifices to bring this issue to the public’s attention. Those who consider themselves allies need to do more than just offering sympathetic statements on the campaign trail. They need to step up and demonstrate real political leadership — making defense officials finally apply the equal protection of the law to people living with HIV.
