Action Alert: Strengthen the Americans With Disabilities Act!

Put some muscle in the ADA!

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 is often interpreted too narrowly, a particularly damaging scenario for people living with HIV/AIDS, who frequently face discrimination. Even when people with HIV/AIDS file discrimination suits, they must first provide testimony about highly personal, intimate matters that are wholly irrelevant to the discrimination case at hand.

This injustice doesn't have to persist! The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 extends better protections to people with disabilities, including people living with HIV. The bill was passed in the House on June 25, and now needs to get through the Senate.

The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 improves the ADA by:

• Specifically rejecting restrictive interpretations by the Supreme Court that have reduced the protections for people with disabilities under the ADA
• Directing that the definition of "disability" must be construed broadly, to cover anyone who is discriminated against on the basis of disability
• Clarifying the definition of disability, to more clearly prohibit discrimination against people with physical or mental impairments

Join organizations including Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Housing Works and the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, and sign on to a letter supporting the ADA Amendment Act of 2008! E-mail banderson@lambdalegal.org by July 21 to add you or your organization's name to the list.