The furor continues over acrobat Matthew Cusick, who was hired by the Cirque du Soleil to perform aerial acrobatics, then fired shortly after he disclosed his HIV-positive status. In a letter terminating Cusick's employment, the Montreal-based circus stated that his HIV-positive status "will likely pose a direct threat of harm to others, particularly in the case of future injury," according to a January 5 report on the Kaiser Network website.
Lambda Legal, a New York-based gay and lesbian civil rights group that is representing Cusick, has filed a federal discrimination complaint on Cusick's behalf. Paul Volderbing, who heads the Infectious Diseases Society of America's HIV Medicine Association, says that the circus management "are really overreacting to a situation that should not pose any risk. I think it's important that whenever this kind of situation arises we speak with confidence about the facts — and in this case, the facts are that HIV is not that easily transmitted, and that this person [Cusick] is being treated unfairly."
Hayley Gorenberg, director of Lambda's AIDS Project, added that "it's important for us to take a case like this because part of our mission is to try to have law and policies line up with medicine and science rather than with irrational fears and assumptions. People who look at this in a serious way...all line up together to say that there is no scientific or medical reason to exclude someone with HIV from contact sports."
In response to an investigation by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, which got involved because the circus leases public property for its shows in that city, circus officials reportedly wrote that "some positions that don't involve bodily contact are suitable for people with HIV — such as dishwashers, food and beverage staff, office assistants, prep cooks, ushers, and merchandise hawkers."
"Our client's dream job is to be a performer, not a dishwasher," counters Gorenberg. The circus did not respond to calls for comment.
Marilynn Larkin is a contributing editor of The Lancet. This article is reprinted with permission from The Lancet Infectious Diseases, February 01, 2004 (volume 4, no. 2).
