Military college student sues armed forces over HIV policy
ABC News
A military college student who says he was removed from his duties for testing positive for HIV is suing state and federal military officials
BOSTON -- A military college student who says he was removed from his duties for testing positive for HIV is suing state and federal military officials.
The 20-year-old student from Revere, Massachusetts, says in a complaint filed Thursday that he tested positive for HIV in October 2020 during his sophomore year at the nation's oldest private military college, Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.
The student, who is identified in the lawsuit only as “John Doe,” said in the complaint filed in federal court in Burlington, Vermont, that he was deemed unfit for service and dropped from the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and the Vermont Army National Guard despite being healthy, asymptomatic and on a treatment regimen that renders his viral load undetectable.
The U.S. Department of Defense and the Vermont National Guard, which are among those named in the lawsuit, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Thursday.