Well, to be honest, he had a "weapon" that could have gone off. Especially if he had a rubber glove and finger print ink fetish.

Oh, wait, that was the customs officer with the fetish.

we treat cannabis as a political issue and not based on scientific study - so why would we handle HIV or AIDS any differently?

The only thing the U.S. has going for it right now is tourism, with our weak dollar we have an opportunity to bring in a lot of money from overseas.

Or at least we would, if we didn't treat visitors like they were the scum of the Earth.

Seriously, how anyone can think the Bush administration has done good things for America is beyond me.

My company has a Canadian office, and one of our guys there refuses to come to the U.S. anymore. You clear TSA and Customs in Ottawa, and even if he gets to the airport hours ahead of schedule he more often than not misses the plane. We write letters to the office there, call them on the phone. No avail. No word about what they detain him for, and what they expect to find that they didn't the last 10 times.

He is not alone. Many international conferences are no longer holding their events in the U.S. for this reason. The non-U.S. scientists and participants don't want to come here, or if they do they don't feel that they can.

Thanks, Bush. Yes, I blame Bush. And all the pip-heads that support him and his stupid agenda. TSA is just one tiny part of his farkups but that is what this thread is about.

Really? I'm the first one to say it?

"We're not just sure... We're HIV-positive."

Do they actually ask you if you're HIV+ in customs?

Why not just...... lie?

AntiNerd: He is not alone. Many international conferences are no longer holding their events in the U.S. for this reason. The non-U.S. scientists and participants don't want to come here, or if they do they don't feel that they can

THIS. Canada is benefiting a lot from US conferences being canceled in the US and held north of the border. For American attendees it really doesn't matter, and for foreign visitors the access is much easier.

At least we know he isn't here for the free health care.

We got that going for us, which is nice.

xtex: Do they actually ask you if you're HIV+ in customs?

Why not just...... lie?

Aside from the humiliation of having to deny a medical condition because of discriminatory laws, getting caught lying to a customs officer about anything material is a one-way ticket to a world of temporary detention and permanent hassle. You will NEVER be off the list.

Did you see or read " The Stand " by Stephen King ?
You really need to know if a bug or super bug crosses your border.
If you don't want to discriminate against AIDS go to Africa where 25 percent of some countries are infected or dying.
There is discrimination and then there's stupid and dead.

larry00: There is discrimination and then there's stupid and dead.

So you think letting HIV-positive Canadians cross the border is risking 25% infection rates here? Yes Virginia, there *is* stupid.

/Got some grade-A stupid right here
//You aren't larryx from the WeLL, by any chance?

Yeah it's not like the guy has an easily communicable deadly disease or anything. Maybe I'm just playing devil's advocate. I don't know. I know I wouldn't invite an HIV-positive man to one of my parties if everyone there wasn't aware. I would assume that he wouldn't knowingly risk infecting another person, but I that's not a risk I'd be willing to lay on someone else's shoulders.

Hell thousands of US citizens have had to to the same thing, just to exercise our civil rights. Want to buy a gun? Just come over here for the fingerprinting and you'll be in the criminal history systems database from now on. There's a good lad.....

Um, excuse me, but as a guy who had to get an HIV test before receiving a 3-month Russian visa, all I can say is "too f*ckin bad". You want to enter another country, they can keep you out for any reason they want. Suck it up and deal.

Juansmith

Um, excuse me, but as a guy who had to get an HIV test before receiving a 3-month Russian visa, all I can say is "too f*ckin bad". You want to enter another country, they can keep you out for any reason they want. Suck it up and deal.

Different country for me but same comment. I had to undergo HIV, TB, goiter, etc testing to get my visa and it never made the news.

Here, if you have HIV they don't fingerprint you; they tell you to go home. It would suck to have HIV and get turned back (and no, it wouldn't be "fair") but I respect their right to protect themselves and uphold immigration standards as they see fit.

Once you test positive for HIV I think you better just accept that life isn't going to be as easy as it used to be. The fact that you're going to die of some horrible disease is itself unfair but those are the cards you have been dealt.

Don't you guys realize that this is all okay? Remember, only bad of black people get AIDs and HIV. Terrorists are bad people, ergo, all people with HIV and AIDs are either liberal terrorists or black.

Sometimes, they're both.

We need to stop them at the border! Otherwise, they might come in and take all our white women!

I think the problem here is not simply that the US can refuse entry to people with communicable diseases, but that HIV appears to be the only disease that has been singled out for explicit use like this. If we're going to exclude people with HIV, then we ought to forbid entry to anyone with the sniffles or a cough because influenza and tuberculosis are much greater threats to public health because they are much more easily spread and kill faster.
A person with HIV can avoid infecting even a single person if they simply take precautions to avoid giving people contact with their bodily fluids. Am I the only person who remembers all those media campaigns for de-stigmatizing HIV-positive individuals by enumerating all the ways one cannot get the disease?

I've run out of friends who haven't had issues at the border.

I was headed down for a concert in Chicago while I was on vacation between jobs. The woman at the Detroit border didn't understand the concept of having a brand new job when I was coming back (which is why I was on vacation in the first place), and claimed I was a security risk because I might not return to Canada.

Fingerprinted, photographed and I think she copied down every single piece of ID I had, including my health card, which is a no-no.