MEDIA ROOTS — Safety and security, or steps toward segregation? If passed, a proposed bill in Kansas would pave the way for discrimination and dehumanisation through vague language calling for quarantine of people with “infectious diseases,” part and parcel of regressive measures tending toward soft fascism.
MR
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GAY STAR NEWS — A proposed bill in Kansas is calling for people with HIV or AIDS to be quarantined.
Lawmakers are close to passing a new law discriminating against those who have HIV or AIDS, forcing them to be isolated or have their movements restricted.
Kansas House Bill 2183, which has passed in the Kansas Senate, will update the state’s public health statute by allowing quarantine of Kansans with ‘infectious diseases.’
Senator Marci Francisco attempted to restore an amendment providing an exclusion for people living with HIV/AIDS, saying the disease is not spread through casual contact and the bill could permit discrimination.
Cody Patton, Executive Director of sexual health charity Positive Directions, said: ‘We live in a very conservative state and I’m afraid there are still many people, especially in rural Kansas, that have inadequate education and understanding concerning HIV/AIDS.
‘My fear would not be the state uses the law as some way to move all people living with HIV/AIDS into an isolated community, but that this law could allow some county employee to use this law to justify their religious beliefs over their professional responsibilities and discriminate against people with HIV/AIDS.’
Read more about Kansas bill calls for HIV positive people to be quarantined.
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