Subject: Task Force Urges Veto of DoD HIV Ban
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 17:32:49 -0500

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PRESS RELEASE
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
2320 17th Street NW, Washington DC 20009
http://www.ngltf.org
contact: Kerry Lobel 202.332.6483 x3307
             Robert Bray 415.552.6448
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TASK FORCE URGES PRESIDENT TO VETO
MILITARY HIV/AIDS BILL

Feb. 6, 1996, Washington, DC...The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has
urged President Clinton to veto the Defense Authorization Act, saying signing
of the bill into law sends "the wrong message and feeds irrational beliefs
and actions" against Americans with HIV and AIDS.

 In a letter to the President sent today, Melinda Paras, NGLTF executive
director, urged the President to veto the measure.  News reports and
statements from The White House have indicated the President may sign it as
early as this weekend.  The "unfair and discriminatory" measure, sponsored by
Republicans Rep. Bob Dornan and Sen. Trent Lott, was attached to the DOD's
authorization act.  It will require the Defense Department to discharge all
HIV positive service members, regardless of their health, within six months
of the bill's enactment or of discovering their HIV status.

 "We recognize the difficult position you've been placed in, Mr. President,
as the Radical Right's action threatens to shut down the defense of the
country so it can impose its own extreme agenda," said Paras in the letter.
 "Allowing this policy to stand, however, sends the wrong message to this
country and feeds the irrational beliefs and actions by Dornan, Lott and
other Congressional leaders who were not willing to stop this provision from
being adopted by Congress."

 The full text of the letter follows, and is attributable to Melinda Paras,
executive director, NGLTF.
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Dear Mr. President:

I am writing to urge you to veto the Defense Authorization Act.  Its unfair
and discriminatory provisions, authored by Representative Dornan and Senator
Lott, will require the Defense Department to discharge all HIV positive
service members within six months of the bill's enactment or of discovering
their HIV status. 

We recognize the difficult position you've been placed in, Mr. President, as
the Radical Right's action threatens to shut down the defense of the country
so it can impose its own extreme agenda.   Allowing this policy to stand,
however, sends the wrong message to this country and feeds the irrational
beliefs and actions by Dornan, Lott, and other Congressional leaders who were
not willing to stop this provision from being adopted by Congress.  

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is  a progressive organization that
has supported grassroots organizing in our communities since 1973.  We deeply
appreciated your earlier veto message that denounced this provision. It set
the right tone of reasonableness, compassion and fairness - a view shared by
the majority of Americans.  While we commend your Administration for making
clear that it would work for new legislation that could overturn this policy
after the fact, the right step to take, Mr. President, is to not allow this
provision to become law in the first place.

The measure, besides being unfair, sets unsound and irrational AIDS health
care policy.  It discriminates against those hundreds of brave and courageous
members of the Armed Forces who have admirably served their country.  The
leadership of the Department of Defense has rightly, and commendably, opposed
this provision as unsound military policy as well.  They have a policy that
works and that applies to all persons with long-term illnesses, such as
asthma, heart disease, and cancer, so long as they are healthy and able to
fulfill their duties.

What Representative Dornan, Senator Lott, and the Republican leadership in
Congress have done is to single out one set of service members for differing
treatment because, in the words of Rep. Dornan, this group consists of "drug
dealers, people who visited whorehouses or homosexuals." Despite volumes of
conscientious health care recommendations for dealing with the AIDS epidemic,
including those offered by the Pentagon itself, Dornan and Lott ignore the
facts about HIV prevention, care and the opinion of a majority of Americans
who believe people with AIDS should not be discriminated against.
 Unfortunately, they are not alone, theirs is an agenda pushed by the Radical
Right in many states across the country.

We urge you to stand up to these forces.  A veto of this bill will make a
clear statement that most Americans do not agree with their extreme attacks
on persons who are HIV+. 

Sincerely,

Melinda Paras
Executive Director
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