LGBT Groups in France Challenge Job Restrictions for People With HIV
Six French organisations filed a challenge with the Council of State, France’s highest administrative court, in Paris on October 15, 2026, contesting restrictions on access to certain jobs in the armed forces, gendarmerie, fire services and civil protection for people living with HIV. Their legal representatives, Deshoulières Avocats, announced the filing.
The coalition comprises Mousse, STOP Homophobie, Familles-LGBT, Élus locaux contre le Sida (ELCS), FLAG! and SOS Racisme. On June 30, they asked the ministers of defence, the interior and health to repeal the relevant provisions of 12 ministerial orders. According to their lawyers, two months without a response amounted to an implicit refusal. It is that refusal the organisations are now challenging.
The claimants’ lawyer, Étienne Deshoulières, explains that the SIGYCOP medical system grades general health using a G coefficient, with G1 the best rating. He says a person with HIV cannot receive better than G2 even with effective treatment and no symptoms, excluding them from some specialities, including military pilot roles. The claimants also challenge the disclosure to human resources departments of health data they consider excessive and inaccurate.
According to AFP’s report on Boursorama, the Ministry of the Armed Forces rejected accusations of racism and homophobia. It said people with HIV are recruited into almost all military specialities. A ministry source told the agency that the requirements reflect the safety of service personnel and operations, noting that criteria evolve with medical advances.
The earlier case began in 2020. As France’s Defender of Rights explains, after the rules changed, the Council of State closed the relevant claims on November 21, 2023, without ruling on their merits. The reform widened access to service for people with HIV, but restrictions remained for certain jobs.
The WHO confirms that people who take antiretroviral medication consistently and maintain an undetectable viral load do not transmit HIV to sexual partners. The claimants stress that they are not seeking to abolish medical examinations: they want individual assessments of actual fitness for work using objective and proportionate criteria. Filing the challenge does not itself remove existing restrictions; a ruling in the new dispute is still pending.
Photo: the Council of State in Paris, August 2009. By LPLT, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized and converted to WebP without cropping.
