An HIV-positive man sued the State Department yesterday for refusing to hire him as a diplomat because of his condition and said he was the victim of illegal discrimination.

Lorenzo Taylor, 48, passed the oral and written exams to become a foreign service officer but was turned down because he has the AIDS virus, according to the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed the lawsuit in federal court on Taylor's behalf.

Lambda Legal said the State Department has a policy of not hiring people who are HIV-positive as diplomats on the grounds they may need medical treatment that is not available in some countries where they might be stationed.

"This isn't just bad policy -- it's also illegal," Jonathan Givner, an attorney for Lambda Legal, said in a written statement.

Lambda Legal's suit says the department violated the federal Rehabilitation Act, which bars the government from discriminating against people with disabilities.

State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher declined comment because the matter was before the courts.

The State Department Web site states that applicants to become foreign service officers must undergo a thorough medical examination and be cleared for unlimited assignment worldwide.

A senior department official said the policy is a matter of fairness to U.S. diplomats and suggested it would not be fair to everyone to hire some who could only serve in posts with a high level of medical care.

"We recognize that people who are HIV-positive have the ability to do the job," said the official, who spoke on condition that he not be named. "But is it fair to the entire corps to have some people come in who can only take assignment in a limited number of places and other people therefore who get shunted off to maybe less desirable places without the same quality of medical facilities?"