For
Matthew
Cusick,
working
for
the
popular
circus
troupe
Cirque
du
Soleil
was
to
be
a
dream
come
true.
It
was
the
end
of
March,
and
in
a
matter
of
days
he
was
set
to
begin
performing
in
their
Las
Vegas
show,
“Mystere.”
He
had
been
training
and
performing
for
the
role
for
months
and
was
in
the
midst
of
costume
fittings
and
other
final
preparations.
But
then
the
company
fired
him
without
warning.
They
told
him
that
because
he
is
HIV-positive
—
a
fact
the
Silver
Spring,
Md.
resident
had
previously
disclosed
to
Cirque’s
doctors
—
they
could
not
allow
him
to
perform
for
fear
of
putting
others
at
risk
of
contracting
the
disease.
“I
was
crushed,”
Cusick
said.
“I
saw
a
dream
that
was
happening,
and
now
it’s
not.
Now
it’s
just
something
that’s
not
coming
true.”
Cirque
du
Soleil’s
actions
led
Cusick,
who
turns
32
next
week,
to
file
a
federal
discrimination
complaint
against
the
company.
With
help
from
the
Lambda
Legal
Defense
&
Education
Fund,
Cusick’s
complaint
was
filed
July
15
with
the
U.S.
Equal
Employment
Opportunity
Commission
in
Los
Angeles.
In
the
complaint,
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.
But
Cirque
du
Soleil
said
the
company
couldn’t
risk
other
performers
or
patrons
getting
infected.
“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,”
said
Renee
Claude
Menard,
a
spokesperson
for
Cirque.
“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.
Cusick,
who
has
lived
in
the
D.C.
area
since
he
was
12,
was
previously
a
bartender
at
the
gay
club
Cobalt
and
currently
works
as
a
personal
trainer.
But
he’s
been
a
gymnast
for
much
of
his
life,
and
was
even
a
gymnastics
coach
for
14
years.
He
left
his
job
at
Cobalt
after
being
hired
by
Cirque
du
Soleil.
Working
with
the
circus,
he
said,
would
have
been
the
pinnacle
of
his
career.
“It’s
actually
a
job
that
most
people
who
want
to
stay
in
the
sport
kind
of
aspire
to,”
Cusick
said.
“It’s
the
top
of
the
sport
in
a
way
because
you
don’t
really
have
professional
gymnastics
so
much,
you
just
have
to
do
shows
and
stuff
like
that.
So
they’re
the
best.”
The
Canada-based
Cirque
du
Soleil
currently
operates
eight
shows
in
North
America,
Europe
and
Asia,
which
are
seen
by
about
7
million
people
a
year.
“Mystere,”
the
show
for
which
Cusick
was
hired,
is
currently
being
performed
at
Treasure
Island
in
Las
Vegas.
After
making
it
through
a
rigorous
audition
process,
Cusick
was
hired
to
be
a
high
bar
catcher
for
two
acts
—
the
Chinese
poles
and
the
Russian
high
bar.
In
the
former,
gymnasts
perform
individually
and
do
not
interact
with
each
other;
on
the
latter,
gymnasts
hang
by
their
legs
from
a
swinging
structure
and
catch
other
performers
coming
off
a
bar.
Once
he
was
hired,
Cusick
began
training
in
July
2002.
During
training,
he
had
two
separate
examinations
by
the
company’s
doctor,
whose
notes
said
Cusick
was
a
“healthy
athlete”
who
“should
be
able
to
perform,”
according
to
Lambda
Legal.
Cusick,
who
has
been
HIV-positive
for
about
10
years,
said
he
disclosed
his
HIV
status
from
the
beginning.
“[My
HIV
status]
came
up
in
conversations
at
the
beginning
of
training
last
year,”
Cusick
said.
“We
had
to
go
through
a
physical
evaluation
to
check
to
see
if
our
joints
were
okay,
if
we
had
any
broken
bones,
and
that’s
the
first
day
we
got
there.”
“He
said
I
was
fine,”
Cusick
said
of
the
company’s
doctor.
Hayley
Gorenberg,
Lambda
Legal’s
AIDS
Project
director
and
Cusick’s
attorney,
said
the
doctor
specifically
cleared
Cusick
to
work
for
Cirque
du
Soleil.
She
also
noted
that
a
number
of
athletic
organizations,
including
the
U.S.
Olympic
Committee,
the
National
Basketball
Association
and
the
National
Collegiate
Athletic
Association,
have
all
said
athletes
have
virtually
no
risk
of
contracting
HIV
during
competition.
“They
all
concluded
that
[HIV-]positive
athletes
should
not
be
exempted
from
competition,”
Gorenberg
said.
“It’s
not
like
Cirque
has
to
go
out
and
figure
this
out.”
But
Menard
said
the
company
was
only
showing
concern
for
others’
safety.
“This
is
not
a
discrimination
issue;
it’s
a
safety
issue,”
Menard
said.
“We
do
have
other
HIV-positive
employees.
…
It’s
not
like
we
don’t
know
what
this
disease
is
about.
But
we
also
know
what’s
involved
in
an
aerial
act,
and
that
was
the
only
reason
why
we
had
to
terminate
that
contract.”
Cusick
said
his
HIV
status
in
no
way
hindered
his
ability
to
perform
and
did
not
put
other
performers
at
risk.
He
...
