Joe Miller:  The Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination against otherwise qualified handicapped persons who are able to perform the duties required by their employment . Although the ruling did not address the specific issue of HIV and AIDS discrimination ...
Andrew Beckett: Subsequent decisions have held that AIDS is protected as a handicap under law , not only because of the physical limitations it imposes , but because the prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social death which precede ... which precedes the physical _ one _ .
Joe Miller: This is the essence of discrimination : formulating opinions about others not based on their individual merits , but rather on their membership in a group with assumed characteristics .