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HIV+ Guy Gets Booted From Florida Rec League

Dakota Basinger, 21, diagnosed last week
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 16, 2014 11:27 AM CDT
HIV+ Guy Gets Booted From Florida Rec League
Dakota Basinger was kicked out of a basketball game for having HIV.   (Shutterstock)

Last week, a 21-year-old Florida man was diagnosed with HIV. After he posted about it on Facebook, Dakota Basinger was pulled from a local basketball league game on Sunday, the Orlando Sentinel reports. In the second half of a playoff game, a Kissimmee city official called a time out, then took Basinger aside to ask if he had the illness, the New York Daily News reports. When Basinger said yes, the city employee said his league basketball-playing days were over, Basinger says. "I feel humiliated and discriminated against."

Asks his mother: "How can you be this ignorant in 2014? I mean, we're not back in the '80s. You cannot catch this from casual contact, from playing basketball, or sweat, or spit, or anything like that.” A city rep says the employee "acted independently and without supervisor approval" and that Kissimmee had "taken corrective action to ensure this does not happen in the future." When games start again, Basinger will be allowed to play, the spokeswoman said. Basinger is an aspiring rapper; he has a new song describing his experience being diagnosed, WKMG reports. (More HIV stories.)

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