Today a plane from The Netherlands will arrive at JFK Airport in New York and two passengers onboard will, for the first time in more than two decades, be able to step safely onto U.S. soil.  The arrival of Clemens Ruland and Hugo Bausch will also signal the end of a shameful and discriminatory policy and kept countless individuals - both straight and gay - separated from their loved ones: the US HIV Travel and Immigration Ban will be a relic of the past! :-)

Clemens will be the first HIV-positive person to enter the country in 22 years.

Fay Hartog Levin, the American Ambassador in Holland said goodby to the guys and the Dutch consul picked them up at the airport. Clemens won a contest by writing this poem:

Positive
No more lies
No more pretending
No more hiding
In the crevices of exclusion

Honesty
to the land
where once lay my destiny
in one viral load

Free I am
Free to travel
To hug, share, love
And once more be united

Alive and proud
I turn to you, America
America, here I come
Come as I am

HIV+

Clemens Ruland

The United Nations praised the United States  on Monday for lifting travel bans on people with HIV and urged 57 other countries with travel restrictions (sic!) to end them quickly.