The Association of British Insurers(ABI) has introduced a new guide about insurance countries with high HIV rates and also restructured its consumer guide for homosexual men covering HIV and life insurance.

The updated guide is to act as a counter balance to the Sexual Orientation Regulations(SOR’s), which contain an opt-out option for insurance companies allowing them to prolong prejudice on the grounds of sexual orientation.

The SORs protect gay, lesbian and bisexual people from discrimination when accessing goods and services. The reason for the SOR’s can be highlighted by the fact that, for example, research has shown that many leading insurance providers in the UK are continuing to send gay men for unnecessary HIV tests.

The ABI code is often seen as the gospel for the insurance industry with over 90% of companies following it to the letter. The move is seen as a step forward in light of findings by companies such as Compass, a financial advisement group for the gay community, whose last report showed that gay men applying for insurance policies frequently faced unjustified discrimination, confusion and mixed messages from insurers.