Woman is Thrown out of Dentist Office for Being HIV-Positive

It’s been 33 years since People v. West 12 Tenants Corp helped establish to the world it is illegal to discriminate against people who have HIV. But despite illegalities, HIV-positive still risk discrimination when divulging their status.

Yvette Brown is the latest case being tackled by Lambda Legal.

According to reports, 48-year old Brown was discriminated against by her dentist, Dr. Kur, after he found out she was HIV-positive.

After she went through a procedure of having two teeth extracted, Dr. Kur put in a prescription for pain medication, Lambda Legal reports. Somehow in the exchange with the pharmacist, he discovered she takes anti-retroviral medication. That’s when he refused to prescribe any pain medication because, he accused, she put him and his staff at risk.

Dr. Kur screamed at Brown, calling her “disgusting” and a “criminal,” and even threatened to call her insurance to drop her coverage completely.

“Because I am black, because I am a woman, because I am HIV-positive, Dr. Kur and Westchester Oral & Maxillofacial Associates treated me as less than a person,” Brown said. “I was humiliated when he called me disgusting and a criminal; and was then kicked out of the office. I never thought that a medical professional—a person who is trained to care for you—would be so cruel. I am a private person and there were only a handful of people who knew I was HIV-positive before this happened to me, but I’m standing up today because I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”