Local

Outsports.com 

The circus company Cirque du Soleil faces possible sanctions for its decision to fire Maryland gymnast Matthew Cusick, who is HIV-positive. The company says that Cusick’s HIV status poses a health risk to other performers. 

San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission is investigating whether anti-discrimination laws were violated by Cirque du Soleil. The commission contends that the circus must honor city codes that prohibit job discrimination based on HIV status. The circus’ San Francisco venue for its six-week show, Pac-Bell Park, is owned by the Port of San Francisco. Last week, Cusick and 50 other activists protested outside Pac Bell Park, where the show was being held. Protests have also been held at the circus' venue in Los Angeles.

“Cusick had been scheduled to perform on the Russian High Bar [at the ‘Mystere’ show in Las Vegas], in which he would hang upside down and catch aerialists, and the Chinese Poles, in which artists perform tricks on tall poles,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Cusick has said he told company doctors about his HIV status prior to the start of his training. But the company decided that letting him perform was a risk.

“It was one of the most difficult decisions that Cirque has had to make because in our usual corporate attitude we’re known to be a very open-minded organization, … but we had to make it for safety reasons,” Renee Claude Menard, a spokesperson for Cirque, told the Washington Blade.

“We had to evaluate that the act that Mr. Cusick was asked to perform is an aerial act, one that is very high-risk. We could not take that safety risk for any of our other employees or our patrons, so we had to terminate that contract,” she said.

Cirque du Soleil’s decision flies in the face of medical evidence that shows almost zero risk for athletes competing with those who have HIV. The most famous case involved former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson, who briefly resumed his NBA career after being diagnosed HIV-positive in the early 1990s.

Cusick, 32, was devastated, but has vowed to fight back.

“I was crushed,” Cusick told the Blade. “I saw a dream that was happening, and now it’s not. Now it’s just something that’s not coming true.”

Aaron Baldwin, a friend of Cusick's, describes what the gymnast had sacrificed to pursue his dream. "Matthew Cusick gave up everything he had for the opportunity of fulfilling a lifelong dream of performing with great Cirque du Soleil," Baldwin said. "He gave up the two businesses that he had started; physical training and gymnastic coaching.Matthew and his lover (whose career would not allow him to move with Matthew to Las Vegas) had mutually agreed to end their long term relationship so that Matthew could pursue his dream. Matthew also left behind his family and a lifetime of friends, which is often the case with others who are hoping to perform with Cirque."

In addition to the action by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, Cusick this summer filed a federal discrimination complaint against Cirque du Soleil.  In the complaint, the Blade reported, “Cusick said he disclosed his HIV status to the company months before he was fired, and had been cleared twice by the company’s own doctors as being a healthy athlete who was perfectly able to perform.”

Cusick has received support in his attempt to be allowed to peform from openly gay athletes such as divers Patrick Jeffrey and David Pichler and ice skating champion Rudy Galindo.

"My sincere hope and prayer is that Cirque du Soleil reconsiders their grossly unfair and heartless decision, and that they reinstate Mr. Cusick immediately -- wishing him well and supporting his determination to be the best athlete and entertainer he can be," Galindo said in a statement.

Cirque du Soleil has until Dec. 2 to answer the rights commission complaint. The company “risks fines, termination of its current contract or disbarment from a city contract for up to three years," Larry Brinkin, a senior contract compliance officer at the Human Rights Commission, told the Chronicle.

Nov. 25, 2003