People with HIV cannot be categorically barred from joining the military, judge rules
NBCAug 22
Judge Blocks Military Ban on HIV-Positive Recruits
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Above: A military recruitment center stands in Times Square in Manhattan on September 04, 2020 in New York City. Image copyright: Spencer Platt/Staff/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
A federal judge has struck down the US military's policy of blocking people with asymptomatic "undetectable viral loads" of HIV from joining the armed forces.
In the ruling, handed down Tuesday, the judge called the policy "irrational, arbitrary, and capricious," adding that it "contribute[d] to the ongoing stigma surrounding HIV-positive individuals while actively hampering the military’s own recruitment goals."
The Spin
Left narrative
This ruling is sound on moral, legal, and scientific grounds. While Biden's military took a good first step in 2022 by allowing existing HIV-positive soldiers to keep their jobs, it continued to discriminate against prospective enlistees. Modern medicine allows all HIV-positive people — in all industries — to live and work safely without fear of infecting their peers.
Right narrative
HIV medicine only works when taken consistently and properly, which is difficult to do in combat zones. Soldiers are also at far greater risk of spilling blood and coming into contact with other's blood, so it's foolish to put America's servicemen at risk of contracting this deadly disease. The courts have stripped Pres. Biden's woke military of the only common sense it still had.
