Armed Forces News

Two HIV-positive service members are suing the Defense Department, in hopes of changing the policy that ultimately could bar them from remaining in uniform.

Sgt. Nick Harrison, a member of the D.C. Army National Guard, is challenging the service’s denial of his request to become an officer and become a staff judge advocate on the grounds that his medical condition renders him non-deployable. He also faces separation, for the same reason.

“It’s frustrating to be turned away by the country I have served since I was 23 years old, especially because my HIV has no effect on my service,” Harrison said in a statement published online by Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN, the organization that is representing him in his court challenge. His case is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

In a separate case, an anonymous Air Force Academy graduate is challenging the service’s decision not to award him a commission because of his HIV status. The airman — identified only as Voe — claims the Air Force made the decision “despite recommendations from medical personnel” to let him serve, according to Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN. The case is pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

In both cases, the service members’ lawyers contend that being HIV positive should not carry the stigma it had in years past. Once considered fatal, they say, the condition now is commonly treated as a chronic and treatable one.

Defense Secretary James Mattis instituted in February the policy requiring all service members to be ready to deploy or face separation.