US court rules HIV-positive people can be banned from military
The US military now bans HIV-positive citizens from enlisting. (Getty)
A US court has ruled people living with HIV can be banned from joining the US military after overturning a lower court ruling.
The US Court of Appeals’ Fourth Circuit reinstated the policy following a unanimous ruling on Wednesday (18 February).
The policy, which allows HIV-positive citizens being rejected from enlisting regardless of transmission risk, was originally brought by the Department of Defence (DoD), but was later blocked by a US district court in August 2024.
A three-judge panel on the Fourth Circuit overturned the lower court’s ruling in its judgment on the case, arguing that the military has a “rational basis” for maintaining medical standards within the US army.
The judges wrote in the ruling: “In this case, the military has articulated its need to have fit service members who can fulfill its military mission without complications from medical conditions that could compromise deployment functions, contribute to conflicts with foreign nations during deployment, and add costs over those generally necessary to maintain fit service members.”
HIV is no longer the death sentence it once was at the height of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. Developments in treatment have massively reduced the mortality rate and almost completely destroyed the risk of transmissibility.
The current primary treatment for HIV, anti-retroviral therapy (ART), allows HIV-positive individuals to live long, healthy lives and almost completely eliminates the risk of transmission, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH).
HIV US military ban ‘irrational’, lawyers argue
Legal action against the DoD’s policy was originally filed in 2022 by Lambda Legal on behalf of three individual plaintiffs who were denied the right to enlist or re-enlist in the US military based on their HIV status.
Gregory Nevins, Lambda Legal’s senior counsel, said he was “deeply disappointed” at the Fourth Circuit’s decision, saying that the judgment would uphold “discrimination over medical reality”.
He added: “Modern science has unequivocally shown that HIV is a chronic, treatable condition. People with undetectable viral loads can deploy anywhere, perform all duties without limitation, and pose no transmission risk to others.
“This ruling ignores decades of medical advancement and the proven ability of people living with HIV to serve with distinction.”
HIV treatment has become so effective that HIV-positive individuals are even able to give blood in several countries, including Australia and the UK, under certain requirements.
However, stigma and misinformation remains exceptionally common. According to the Terrence Higgins Trust, 74 per cent of people living with HIV say they have experienced stigma due to their HIV status, while almost one third have experienced discrimination from friends.
Scott Schoettes, who argued the case on appeal, said the DoD’s policy was “irrational” and would lead to further discrimination.
“Today, servicemembers living with HIV are performing all kinds of roles in the military and are fully deployable into combat. Denying others the opportunity to join their ranks is just as irrational as the military’s former refusal to deploy servicemembers living with HIV.”
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