Last week, The Federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability voted against lifting a ban that prohibits gay men from donating blood.
Did you even know there was such a ban? I didn't, and I was shocked to find out there is one.
If a man has had sex with a man, even once, since 1977, the FDA prohibits him from donating blood. According to CNN, the ban has been in place since the 1980s when there weren't blood tests to screen for HIV.
But now there are, so what's the problem? We need blood, not all gay men have HIV, and we can check to make sure they (just like anyone else) don't, right?
One study says that more than 200,000 pints of blood would be available if the ban was lifted.
The American Red Cross said while they have to follow the rules set by the FDA, they "also strongly support the use of rational, scientifically based deferral periods that are applied fairly and consistently among donors who engage in similar risk activities."
The committee did say the current system is "suboptimal" and made recommendations to improve it through a series of studies. Meanwhile, the ban remains.
What do you think of the ban on gay men donating blood?
Image via makelessnoise/Flickr
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Comments 16
I think it's stuipd and should be lifted because no matter if you gay or not you should be able to give blood.
This has made me angry for years, and knowing it remains this way enrages me still more.
As a gay man, I find this absolutely ridiculous. Also as a gay man, I have discovered there are many men who lie about having sex with other men. Say Joe Schmoe is married, but has sex with another man - and then with his wife. He can still donate blood by saying that he has never had sex with another man - because it was kept a secret - so not only is HE passing on the same possible diseases he got from the other man, but so is his wife.
So really, nothing is being prevented here. Plus, it's not as though it's impossible - oreven uncommon in some areas - for women or straight men to contract HIV. So why is ANYONE allowed to give blood?
who do I call or write?
It's the correct decision. Unless you understand the science as well as the doctors do, you'd better leave the science to them, and trust them to do their jobs to protect our safety. They obviously have some serious concerns, and the CNN article didn't explain that very well.
I'm glad that these docs aren't controlled by their emotions, and stick to the logic of science. After all, the HIV virus doesn't care whether you are happy or not about this decision; it just wants to gets into your blood.
This is stupid this goes along with gay rights I've donated blood and they test for stuff be4 its sent to the blood bank they can test it 4 what ever their worried about who ever made this banned is a homophobic ass hole so back off and leave gay men alone
I can understand 20 years ago when there was no real accurate test for HIV, but it really has no place.
And actually as a woman, you can be banned from giving blood too if you've ever had sex with a bi-sexual man who's slept with another man.
This is stupid. It's just a leftover from when our HIV/AIDS testing was still in its infancy.
The laws are outdated, and not keeping up with technology. It's ridiculous. Not everyone is honest about their sexual relations, with their PARTNERS, therefore, it's EXTREMELY LIKELY that a bi sexual male slept with a straight female and didn't inform her. Therefore ALL blood is run through THE SAME RIGOROUS testing, regardless of the answers you provide, and regardless of how many times you've provided it.
The ban is not on gay men, but men that have sex with other men, I know it's subtle, but it's not a ban based on sexual orientation, but on sexual practices. Although I agree it's somewhat outdated, it does have some statistical merit, vanishingly small as it is. All blood is screened for hepatitis and HIV amongst other diseases, regardless of how the questions on the application are answered: the catch is, the HIV screening test is only 99% effective. This is why people with higher risk practices are excluded.
Why are men who have sex with men at higher risk of contracting HIV you ask? Because the rate of HIV transmission with anal intercourse is as high as 1/10 (same goes with heterosexual couples that have anal sex, so really, they should also be excluded from donating based on this criteria). With heterosexual vaginal intercourse it's a much lower male to female transmission rate (1/200 perhaps, although I'm not 100% certain), and female to male transmission of HIV is even lower (1/600? or lower).