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news
NATIONAL
lawsuit filed Sept. 3 in fed
eral court argues that the
State Department illegally pro
hibits anyone with HIV from
being hired as a foreign service
officer, regardless of the appli
cant’s qualifications or health
status.
Lorenzo Taylor is fluent in
three languages, holds a foreign
service degree from Georgetown
University and easily passed the
tough written and oral exams
required to be a foreign service
officer—but was rejected by the
State Department because he has
HIV. The 48-year-old federal gov
ernment employee who lives in
the Washington, D.C., area
appealed that decision but again
was rejected and then worked
with Lambda Legal to file an
administrative complaint with the
State Department late List year.
More than 10,000 U.S. citi
zens are foreign service officers,
assigned by the State Depart A ttorneys argue that the State Department illegally
ment to serve in embassies, con discriminated against Lorenzo Taylor because he has H IV
sulates and other diplomatic
than the military, the foreign service is the only
posts in 180 countries. The State Department
type of federal employment where people with
prohibits the foreign service from hiring people
HIV are broadly blocked from consideration.
with HIV in these positions, claiming they
"This isn’t just bad policy— it’s also illegal,"
might require medical treatment that isn’t avail
Givner said. The lawsuit charges that the State
able in some of the less-developed countries
Department is in violation of the federal Reha
where they might be stationed.
bilitation Act, which prohibits the U.S. govern
According to attorney Jonathan Givner,
ment from discriminating against people with
applicants should be assessed case by case to
disabilities.
determine their individual medical status. Other
A
it's ME!
he American Civil Liberties Union filed a
legal brief Sept. 5 asking the U.S. Supreme
Court to let stand a federal appeals court mling
that allows doctors to recommend medical mar
ijuana to their patients with HIV/A1DS, cancer
and other life-threatening diseases.
“What’s at issue is the ability of doctors to
speak openly and honestly with their patients
about marijuana as a viable therapy option,"
attorney Graham Boyd said. “Patients deserve
access to accurate information about its medici
nal value in treating pain, nausea, wasting syn
drome and other symptoms of life-threatening
diseases."
The A C LU represents 15 doctors and
patients in California who have suffered as a
result of the federal government’s threats to doc
tors regarding the discussion of marijuana as
medicine. Attorneys argued the case successful
ly before a federal appeals court last year and will
argue it before the Supreme Court if the justices
decide to review the mling.
The case arose after California voters passed
Proposition 215 in November 1996, which
makes it legal for patients to grow and possess
marijuana for medical use when a doctor recom
mends it. President Bill Clinton reacted by
threatening to revoke the licenses of physicians
who recommended medical use of marijuana,
and the Bush administration has continued that
policy.
The A C LU and the Dnig Policy Alliance
successfully challenged the policy in the lower
courts, and in October 2002 the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld that
ruling. In a decision authored by Chief Judge
Mary Schroeder, the court said that the govern
ment’s attempt to bar doctors from recommend
T
10 ***» »
ing medical marijuana “does...strike at core
First Amendment interests of doctors and
patients” and that "physicians must be able to
speak frankly and openly to patients."
-0»
he American Counseling Association has
become the first of the major mental health
professional associations
to boast an openly gay
president.
Mark Pope, an associ
ate professor at University
of Missouri-St. Louis, was
elected by members to
serve as their president
through 2004. The A C A
is the largest organization
exclusively representing
more than 50,000 profes
sional counselors in various practice settings
throughout the United States and around the
world.
Pope is serving as president exactly 30 years
after the American Psychiatric Association
removed homosexuality from its official list of
mental disorders. In a recent speech at the APA
annual convention, he chided his mental health
colleagues for this history.
“By a vote of the hoard of directors of the
American Psychiatric Association in 1973, we
were removed from their ‘Diagnostic and Statis
tical Manual of Mental Disorders,’ ” he said.
“They waved their magic wand and we were
made ‘sane’ overnight. Do you understand the
power that we, as mental health professionals,
have to affect people’s lives? ...T hat is why my
T
Continued on Page 22
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