Judge Overturns Military Ban on HIV-Positive Troops Getting Commissioned as Officers

A federal judge has struck down the military’s policy of denying commissions to HIV-positive service members in a lawsuit filed in 2018.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled Wednesday that the Department of Defense must reconsider Nicholas Harrison’s application to become a JAG officer for the D.C. National Guard without taking into account his HIV-positive status. The ruling also applies to “any other asymptomatic HIV-positive service member with an undetectable viral load.” . . .

When asked about the judge’s Wednesday ruling, a spokesman for the Pentagon directed Military.com to the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice did not reply before publication.

The allegation that the military’s HIV regulations, originally developed in the 1980s, are out of touch is not new.

At one point in the 1980s, service members who tested positive were being charged with sodomy under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and HIV-positive troops reported being forced to live in a special barracks at Fort Hood that became known as “the leper colony.” (Read more from “Judge Overturns Military Ban on HIV-Positive Troops Getting Commissioned as Officers” HERE)

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