
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 17, 1990                   TAG: 9006170154
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

AIDS BIAS SPREADING FASTER THAN DISEASE, ACLU REPORTS

Incidents of AIDS-related discrimination are increasing across the nation, not only against those who are ill with the disease or infected with the human immunodeficiency virus but also their relatives and care-givers, according to a study released Saturday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU, in what is believed to be the first comprehensive look at AIDS discrimination in the United States, said complaints of AIDS-related discrimination increased by 50 percent in 1988, following an 88 percent increase in 1987.

In 1988, the document said, reports of discrimination rose 35 percent faster than the number of newly diagnosed AIDS cases, indicating the trend involves more than simply the spread of the disease.

Of all reported incidents, 30 percent involved people who experienced discrimination "simply because of the perception that they were HIV-infected or because they care for a person with HIV-disease," the ACLU report said.

A Connecticut family, for example, was denied housing because an adopted son had AIDS, and an Illinois employer fired a worker after learning that "someone [he] knew was HIV-positive," the report said. One incident investigated in California involved someone "who was refused service after he informed his dentist that his brother had recently died of AIDS," the report said.

Nan B. Hunter, outgoing director of the ACLU AIDS project and principal author of the report, said the study "shows how extraordinarily persistent discrimination remains in this country, even after science has proven there is no risk of casual transmission."

Thomas Stoddard, executive director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay rights organization that litigates cases of AIDS-related discrimination, called the study "absolutely chilling.

"This report suggests that we are far less reasonable and compassionate than we would care to believe, even toward those struggling for their very lives," he said.

Stoddard attributed the high level of discrimination, in part, to the fact that most of those afflicted in this country are homosexual and bisexual men or intravenous drug abusers.

"If AIDS were evenly distributed throughout this society like cancer, every person in United States would think of himself at personal risk and would identify with people who are stricken," Stoddard said. "That doesn't happen with AIDS."

Most instances of discrimination occurred in the areas of employment, housing, public accommodations, insurance, delivery of government benefits such as Social Security and Medicaid, and access to health care such as dentists and nursing homes.

The ACLU said inconsistencies and gaps in anti-discrimination laws contributed to the problem. State and local laws vary widely, and the two federal statutes that prohibit discrimination against the disabled are limited in their coverage.

"In the same town a schoolteacher who has AIDS could not be fired [because public schools are covered by existing federal law], but his mother, who works in a bank, could lose her job, even though she is only incorrectly perceived as being HIV-infected," the report said. "In the same company, an employee with AIDS may be protected from being fired, but a customer with AIDS could be refused service."

by CNB