Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - The Voice of the West, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94119 - March 20, 1996, p.A3
David Tuller, Chronicle Staff Writer
The move took place after a group of senators added an amendment calling for the law's repeal to a major appropriations bill. The amendment passed on a voice vote, after which the Senate approved the overall bill by 79 to 21.
The amendment's prospects for becoming law remain cloudy, however. Support for the HIV military ban is stronger in the House, which passed a version of the appropriations bill this week, but did not include a similar amendment.
The final form of the appropriations bill must be negotiated in a joint House-Senate conference.
"The amendment was slipped in without debate, and it means that the Senate is on record that the provision should be repealed," said David Sandretti, a spokesman for Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
Although Boxer was one of several senators who lobbied to include the amendment repealing the HIV ban, she voted against the overall appropriations bill because "it provides too little funding for her priorities," Sandretti said.
Earlier this year, Congress passed the ban on HIV-positive military personnel, which was added to a larger defense bill by conservative Representative Robert Dornan, R-Orange County.
President Clinton signed the bill, explaining at the time that he opposed the ban but could not ignore the defense bill's other provisions.
Under the ban, the military must discharge anyone who tests HIV-positive within six months. Previously, those infected with HIV were allowed to continue serving for as long as they could perform their duties.
Supporters of the ban said the presence of HIV-positive military personnel interfered with the military's ability to carry out its mission. Opponents said that such individuals should continue to be treated the same way others with major illnesses, such as cancer, are treated.
Immediately after the president signed the bill, lesbian and gay rights advocates, the White House itself and many legislators began clamoring for its repeal.
Even Senator Sam Nunn, D-Ga., who outraged lesbians and gays three years ago when he opposed Clinton's attempts to lift the ban on gays in the military, spoke out against the HIV ban on the Senate floor.
Senior military officers, including General John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have publicly opposed the Dornan provision.
"I think it is unfair, and that is what bothers me very much," Shalikashvili said earlier this month in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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