When Armando Gutierrez learned he was HIV positive last December, he struggled to share the information with his employer.

The 31-year-old believed he was well-liked at the Kansas chain restaurant where he’d worked as a server for a year, but still worried his co-workers would stigmatise him if they learned of his condition. In a lawsuit filed last week in US District Court in Kansas, Mr Gutierrez claims his fears were well founded, because shortly after sharing his status with a manager, he says he was fired.

Mr Gutierrez first told his manager at the Big Biscuit in Overland Park, Kansas, that he had cancer rather than HIV, the lawsuit says. But to qualify for a state program to get medications for HIV, he needed his manager to verify he didn’t receive health insurance through his work. Forced to come forward about his status, he brought his manager forms to sign.

Mr Gutierrez then learned he had suddenly been transferred to another location and would be forced to work on Sundays – a day that he had said he could not work due to family obligations. When he appeared for work at the new location, he protested the schedule change and said he couldn’t make an accommodation, according to his lawyer, Mark Dugan.

As a result, Mr Gutierrez claims, he was fired.

Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation Show all 10 1 /10 Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation Sir Elton John and Evgeny Lebedev The Independent has launched it's Christmas charity appeal for essential HIV testing around the world with the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Funds raised will pay for those at risk to be able to get tested, and will make sure they have access to the treatment they need. Sir Elton John and Evgeny Lebedev with their HIV test swabs at the Ponce Centre in Atlanta Jeremy Selwyn Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation Elton John and Andrew Williams Andrew Williams had never heard of the word HIV when he tested positive. It was his mother who had forced him to go to the doctor where he got the diagnosis that he thought was a death sentence. At that time he was in a wheelchair. It was the unbearable itching of his back that finally got him to get medical help but, he discovered, he not only had HIV but diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease. That was two years ago. This week, as the 31-year-old joined Sir Elton John and Evening Standard and The Independent owner Evgeny Lebedev in Atlanta to witness the revolutionary new breakthroughs against the disease at the city’s Grady Ponce De Leon Centre, there was no need for a wheelchair. Nor, he now knew, was there any need for fear Jeremy Selwyn Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation Evgeny Lebedev and Andrew Williams Within two months of starting the latest antiretroviral drugs, the virus in his body had become undetectable in his blood. Not only is he now healthy, partly due to the drugs and partly due to the healthy lifestyle adopted for his other illnesses, but he can virtually not pass the infection to other people. He feels, he says, “reborn”. “I have a reason to live,” he explained, “and that is to help people who were like me – and to show you’re going to be OK.” Jeremy Selwyn Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation It was a message so stark in its optimism that it reduced Sir Elton to tears. He knows first-hand the realities of what, in the past, an HIV diagnosis can mean. When he started his Elton John AIDS Foundation in the US in 1992, it was because his friends were dying and he wanted to do what he could, anything that he could, to help. “When we set up the Elton John AIDS Foundation we were delivering meals to people’s doors,” he said. “[The stigma meant] they would not go outside. We have come a long way.” Jeremy Selwyn Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation But part of the reason for his tears was not only happiness at Andrew’s story. It was also the knowledge that, despite all the advances that have been made, the fight is far from won – indeed, in some parts of the world, things are getting worse. Sir Elton John with everyone at the Ponce Centre in Atlanta Jeremy Selwyn Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation It is why he and Mr Lebedev had come to Atlanta to mark the first day of our Christmas Appeal, for that city, sadly, is one place where the situation is not only getting worse but, as those at the centre made clear, dramatically so. Jeremy Selwyn Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation Sir Elton John with Vic Mensa at the Ponce Centre Jeremy Selwyn Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation Sir Elton John with his HIV test swab In Atlanta, one of America’s richest cities and the home of such international corporate giants as Coca-Cola and CNN, if you are a gay black man in 2018 then, unbelievably, you still have a one in two chance of being diagnosed as HIV positive during your lifetime. Jeremy Selwyn Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation Elton John with the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms Jeremy Selwyn Independent campaign with the Elton John AIDS Foundation Elton John talks at the Ponce Centre Jeremy Selwyn

The Big Biscuit did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s requests for comment.

Mr Gutierrez’s lawsuit alleges that the Big Biscuit violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by firing him over his HIV status. He seeks financial compensation, which he argues he’s entitled to through the ADA, including back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

“It had a pretty huge emotional impact,” Mr Dugan said, of his client’s firing. “First he was upset by the diagnosis, he was upset at work. The fact that he was unable to continue in his job just further undermined his stability.”

Individuals with HIV or AIDS are protected by federal anti-discrimination laws thanks to a 1998 Supreme Court ruling. ADA.gov states that “persons with HIV disease, either symptomatic or asymptomatic, have physical impairments that substantially limit one or more major life activities and thus are protected by the ADA.”

There is no current cure for HIV, but medical treatment is available to control it, and the CDC has outlined several methods to help prevent its transmission. According to CDC data from 2016, about 1.1m Americans had HIV infections and an estimated 162,500 additional people had been diagnosed. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received 195 complaints of workplace discrimination due to HIV status in fiscal year 2018.

In 2015, a man in Georgia won a $125,000 (£97,200) settlement against his employer after he said he was fired over his HIV status, the BBC reported. Chanse Cox decided to come forward to his managers after his co-workers at the juice production plant Gregory Packaging began gossiping about his condition. Management fired him on the basis that his condition caused a food safety issue. Mr Cox took his case to the EEOC, which sued the company for violating the ADA.

While Mr Gutierrez’s manager at the Big Biscuit did sign the necessary form for him to receive state aid, and Mr Gutierrez has since found other employment, the pain inflicted by his dismissal remained nearly a year later, his attorney said.

“He’s done a very good job of trying to move on, but it was pretty upsetting for him,” Mr Dugan said.