During U.S. President Ronald Regan’s administration, the United States Government established a ban that prohibited HIV positive visitors and immigrants from entering the United States. Today, the ban was lifted.

At the time, little was known about how HIV was transmitted, and some American politicians believed they could stop the virus from spreading in the U.S. by keeping foreigners with AIDS out of the country.

Washington, D.C., is hosting the 2012 International AIDS Conference.

The Bush administration approved the end of the travel ban in June 2008, but failed to implement the regulatory changes to end the restrictions. U.S. President Obama called the travel ban a “decision rooted in fear rather than fact” in announcing the policy’s January 4, 2010 end.

Immigration Equality has been pushing for an end to the ban for years.

Other organizations stated “it is truly sad that it took 22 years for the United States to catch up to the United Kingdom, Canada, and other industrial nations.”

Steve Ralls, Director of Communications for Immigration Equality stated:

“In about 72 hours, a plane from the Kingdom of the Netherlands will arrive at JFK Airport in New York and two passengers onboard will, for the first time in more than two decades, be able to step safely onto U.S. soil. The arrival of Clemens Ruland and Hugo Bausch will also signal the end of a shameful and discriminatory policy that has exacted a heavy price on our country’s reputation in the scientific community and kept countless individuals – both straight and gay – separated from their loved ones.

The ban, which was put into place due, in large part, to the efforts of former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms of the State of North Carolina, whose action resulted in an unconscionable policy of separation for families, spouses and children who were literally torn apart because of the law. It was, as President Obama remarked when announcing its demise, “a decision rooted in fear, rather than fact.”

Repeal of the ban – which was shepherded through Congress by U.S. Senator John Kerry, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former Senator Gordon Smith – began under the Bush Administration, as part of the former president’s PEPFAR legislation to curb and treat HIV/AIDS around the globe. Kerry, Lee and Smith rightly recognized that, in order to curb the disease, the United States must also lead the way in ending the stigma and misinformation surrounding the disease, too. The first step in doing so was to take the U.S. out of the company of 11 other countries, such as Lybia and Saudia Arabia, who continued to deny entry to HIV-positive people, and put us alongside much of the rest of the world.

U.S. Secretary of State Clinton

The end of the ban has had immediate impact as well. In addition to allowing individuals like Ruland and Bausch to finally return to the United States and visit family and friends, it has paid diplomatic and scientific dividends, too. Just days after U.S. President Obama announced the end of the ban, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed with news that, for the first time in decades, the United States would again host the World AIDS Conference, which will be held in Washington, D.C., in 2012. The conference, which brings together the world’s top researchers and experts on HIV and AIDS, had not been held on U.S. soil since 1989, when a Dutch researcher was detained by U.S. officials because of his HIV status. Its return to America represents a turning point in our reputation among the world’s leading scientific thinkers.”