Immigration Equality’s executive director, Rachel B. Tiven, spoke with Voice of America radio this morning about repeal of the HIV travel and immigration ban.  Excerpts are below.  To listen to the full inteview, visit Voice of America online.

Executive Director Rachel B. Tiven of New York-based Immigration Equality says that yesterday’s action was a positive development, and that the ban, which has until now continued to classify HIV as a communicable disease that warrants exclusion from US life, is expected to be fully lifted by December.

“This is the penultimate step, but it is not the end of the road. Until the 45-day notice and comment period is concluded, and until after that, the new regulation is finally published, it will not take effect. We expect, and we hope, and we will be monitoring the implementation of the final regulation, which we hope will happen before the end of the year,” she said.

Tiven, who heads a national rights organization that advocates for equal treatment of immigrants and also gay and lesbian couples seeking to keep their families together in the United States, explains that the repeal of the HIV ban, which is the only disease ever singled out legislatively for immigration quarantine in America, has taken a year or more to implement because of standard administrative procedures followed by the US government.

“It’s standard procedure that all federal regulations have to go through, and it’s a multi-step process, and by releasing the text of the new regulations, and putting them up for what’s called Notice and Comment (a procedure that is the usual course for all new proposed regulations), the end of the HIV ban is really coming to the last big hurdle in a multi-step process,” she noted.

Tiven calls the ban “an anachronistic exclusion that was not based on good science. It was based on fear and misinformation about HIV and AIDS.”