Bejamin Ryan

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Advocates criticize Biden for inaction after judge orders military to accept recruits with HIV

Several people living with HIV told NBC News they have been turned away from military service or have faced roadblocks to enlistment, despite a federal judge’s ruling in August that found prohibiting healthy HIV-positive recruits is unconstitutional. Now, as Joe Biden’s presidency reaches its final days, advocates for people with HIV are increasingly concerned that his administration will not fully implement the judge’s ruling, punting it to the incoming Trump administration. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 has barred employment discrimination based on HIV status for decades. The Defense Department, which employs nearly 3 million people, has remained the one […]

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‘This will shut us down’: HIV prevention clinics brace for Gilead reimbursement cuts

Tony Christon-Walker was determined to set up an HIV prevention clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, that would succeed where others have long struggled to combat the scourge of the virus among his fellow queer Black men.  The director of prevention and community partnerships at the nonprofit AIDS Alabama, he spent much of 2019 hiring a clinic staff composed of people of color. They were trained to provide the kind of affirming care that, he said, “reflects our culture,” and that would encourage local men at risk of HIV to keep coming back. Even facing the headwinds of the Covid-19 pandemic, the fledgling […]