I must have missed the memo that said we are still living in the 1980’s.
I am a proud blood donor. I donate a pint every 8 weeks — which is as often as a person is able to donate — because I firmly believe that this small act can help to save lives. Blood donation is quick, relatively painless, and critical to preserving the health of victims of accident and illness. If I or someone I love were in the hospital, I wouldn’t want the lack of available blood to stymy the medical treatment available to us; I want to be able to thank an anonymous blood donor for their selfless gift of blood that hopefully will save my, or my family’s, lives. The American Red Cross makes blood donation absurdly convenient, and they even reward you with cookies and sandwiches with every visit!
Yet, our national blood reserves are dwindling. The American Red Cross estimates that roughly 1 in 30 — that’s 3% — of Americans capable of donating blood actually do so. Even fewer donate more than once or regularly. Hence, I urge everyone I know to take the time to donate — even if you have an “undesirable” blood type. I’m A-positive, which is one of the least desirable types out there.
Yet, my one exception to the whole blood donation process is that nagging question asked of during the screening process: are you a male — or have you had sex with a male — who has had sexual contact with another male since 1997? Translation: are you or your partner gay?
Answering yes to this question immediately disqualifies you from donating blood — and it is based on an archaic fear that AIDS remains a “gay disease”. Because AIDS began (in America) in the gay community, there’s still a public perception out there that AIDS is only contracted by gay men through homosexual sex. This is despite the fact that thirty years of scientific research has quickly established that the HIV virus does not discriminate based on sexual orientation — gay and straight men and women can all contract AIDS through unprotected sex.
The Federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety — a committee that makes recommendations on blood donation guidelines to the Food and Drug Administration (which in turn tells the American Red Cross who can and cannot donate blood) — has banned donation from gay men based on statistics: they believe that because gay men are more likely to be HIV-positive, it’s easier to protect the nation’s blood supply from the virus by simply banning this “high risk” group of donors. And, it’s true that AIDS is more prevalent in the gay community. But, HIV is also more prevalent in African-American communities. In fact, the AIDS epidemic has reached such heights amongst sexually active Black adults that, in the D.C. area, it is estimated that 7% of Black men are HIV-positive. Blacks, only 13% of the national population, represent nearly half of new AIDS diagnoses each year. In other words, based on the Federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety’s rationale for their ban on gay blood donation, Black men and women should also be prohibited from donating blood. Yet, we know instinctively that such a ban would be racist and discriminatory.
The point is that banning African-Americans from donating blood because of higher-than-average rates of HIV/AIDS contraction within that community is as ludicrous as banning gay Americans from donating blood. HIV and AIDS does not transmit via race, or via sexual orientation. It is scientific fact that the HIV virus transmits by unprotected sexual contact, by transfusion of contaminated blood, and by sharing of needles.
If the Federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety wants to protect the national supply from HIV/AIDS, they should ban behaviours scientifically proven to increase the risk of contracting the virus. Just as they ban potential donors who have visited countries that have suffered bloodborne epidemics (such as Mad Cow’s Disease in the United Kingdom), they should ban all donors (regardless of race or sexual orientation) who engage in unprotected, risky sex or who are intravenous drug users.
Not surprisingly, current screening tests prior to blood donation ask if a donor has had unprotected sex (or sex with an HIV-positive partner) or uses drugs, and theoretically already weeds out those who are actually at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS without having to ask after the donor’s sexual orientation. Yet, the American Red Cross is bizarrely obliged to filter out in their screening process gay men who are monogamous, practice safe sex, or who are even abstinent — based purely on the misguided belief that their sexual orientation still puts these potential donors at risk for AIDS.
Now, I have always believed that this ban on gay blood donation is an archaic holdover from the 1980’s, and that it would be immediately overturned when examined by modern politicians. Yet, this morning, the Federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety voted to uphold the national ban on gay blood donation even while they called the ban “suboptimal”. The American Red Cross currently estimates that roughly 219,000 pints of blood are being turned away by this ban on gay donors. I simply cannot understand the thinking of the Federal Advisory Committee on this matter — it appears to based purely on unscientific and discriminatory misperceptions of what HIV is and how it is transmitted. Call me naive, but I simply cannot believe that such irrational and specious thinking remains at the highest level of our government in the 21st century.
I also wonder: if members of the Advisory Committee (or the Family Research Council, which released a statement in abject praise of the Committee’s decision) were in need of blood, would they still shy away from blood donated by a gay male based on hysterical, illogical fears of contracting AIDS? Somehow, I doubt it very much. So, why are these people working to prevent that much-needed blood from saving the lives of others?
Act Now! Contact the FDA today and urge them not to follow the advice of the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety’s, and to lift the national ban on gay blood donation. Also, go to the American Red Cross’s blood donation website to schedule a blood donor visit at your local bloodbank, or even to host a blood drive at your office!
