Submitted by: Steven J. Bowen STATEMENT BY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE WITH AIDS CONDEMNING THE MCCLUNG DECISION ON THE CHANCERY COURT OF FAULKNER COUNTY - Washington DC - June 20, 1994 The National Association of People With AIDS is dismayed and discouraged by the actions of the Chancery Court of Faulkner County, Arkansas, in removing Kim Curtis McClung, aged 10, and Summer Nicole McClung, aged 5, from the custody of their mother Lisa D. McClung, on the sole grounds that Ms. McClung shared a home with her brother, a man living with HIV disease. The Judge in this case based his decision on a completely speculative 1% chance that some undaitailed accident with the uncle's IV equiment or minor cuts and scratches received by the children when in contact with their uncle could cause the children to become HIV-infected. After 14 years of fighting HIV-based discrimination, it astonishes us that the bogeyman of casual household transmission has not yet been conquered. If Ms. McClung regularly walked her children along a busy road, we think it unlikely that the judge would terminate custody on the grounds that there was a 1% chance one of the children might get hit by a car. In that case, the judge would trust the mother they'd initially found fit enough to be granted custody in the original divorce decree to be able to protect her children from everyday dangers. The person most harmed by this decision, however, is not Ms. McClung or either of her children. After all, as soon as Ms. McClung's brother moved out, the judge lifted the order terminating Ms. McClung's custody. The only condition was that the children were to have no contact witht their uncle. So Ms. and Mr. McClung are in their homes. The children are back safe in their beds. Only Ms. McClungs brother, who is very ill and in need of his family's support and love, is not being allowed to go back home. Unfortunately, the McClung case is not unusual. Employers, judges, health care providers and many other people all over the country continue to openly discriminate against people living with HIV. It is not yet generally thought to be wrong to act cruelly towards those whom fate has already dealt such a difficult hand. Men, women and children living with HIV are thought to deserve ther disease. That society believes them to be "guilty" becomes more and more clear every time children ae removed from their mother's care, insurance is taken away from sick people when they need it most and employees are fired at the first sign of a Kaposi's lesion. We must work together to end this discrimiation now! It is our responsibility, as a civilized society, to ebd all discrimination whenever and whereever it appears. We know we can count on Ms. McClung to help us in this fight. Can we count on you? NAPWA will work with the Ryan White Center and the Arkansas Association of People with AIDS in any way we can to overturn this miscarriage of justice. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE WITH AIDS 1413 K Street, NW, Washington DC 20005 Phone: (202) 898-0414 Fax: (202) 898-0435 ARKANSAS ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE WITH AIDS c/o The Ryan White Center District 1 Consortium 2422 West 10th Street Little Rock, AR 72201 Phone: (501) 376-6299 Fax: (501) 376-6544 (Ryan White Center) Fax: (501) 835-9250 (AAPWA) by appointment, please. Email: sjbowen@aapwa.win.net