An ongoing struggle

The publication of the Association of British Insurers' (ABI) Statement of Best Practice on HIV and Insurance in October 2004, established an industry-wide agreement to stop asking pejorative questions and to treat everyone applying for insurance fairly. While most life insurers would not admit it, men working as hairdressers, ballet dancers or cabin crew, would, in the past, have prompted many underwriters to assume they were gay, and at a higher risk of contracting - or already having - HIV. It could have meant an automatic request for an HIV test or the application even being rejected....