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Loading ...Gay man fights blood donor ban
08.12.2008 4:13pm EDT
(Hobart, Australia) A human rights hearing in Australia has been told that a ban on gay men donating blood is discriminatory and should be lifted.
Michael Cain filed a complaint alleging the Red Cross is violating his civil rights by refusing to accept the blood of gays. Cain’s complaint says that screening of prospective blood donors should be based on the safety of sexual practices, not sexual identity.At a hearing in Hobart, Associate Professor Anne Mitchell, a social researcher, testified that only a small proportion of the gay community engages in risky sex.
But Red Cross attorney Jeremy Ruskin said that male-to-male sex is the riskiest activity for HIV and accounts for 86 percent of newly acquired infections.
Ruskin said if Cain’s complaint were accepted it would amount to an experiment with the blood supply.
“We are talking about infection and death,” he said.
Ruskin then asked Mitchell about the high rate of newly acquired HIV cases.
She replied that it was because HIV had already infected the gay community.
Cain’s lawyer, Peter Tree, told the rights tribunal that the donor ban was “’straightforward, almost text-book direct discrimination.”
Tree reminded the tribunal that gay sex was not illegal in Tasmania and the law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, or lawful sexual activity.
He also told the tribunal that since the ban was imposed at the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, scientific tests had enabled detection of HIV antibodies in donated blood.
Tree said that to eliminate a particular group people beforehand was not merely discriminatory, but illogical and medically flawed.
The hearing continues.
The United States and Canada also bar gay men from donating blood.
All people should be able to donate blood and all blood should be tested for diseases that can be carried through it. It really isn’t all that complicated. Both parties have legitimate concerns and both can be addressed fairly.
FINALLY! I will be elidgible for prizes! LOL
Diseases are more common among heterosexual people now a days….so lets ban them from donating anything.
Heterosexuals carry more diseases and most of them dont get treaty because they feel like it wont happen to them. Maybe we should ban them from donating anything…..
This is BUll i know what they are talking about. I have always donated blood because of my universal blood type and when i chose to be honest 12 yrs. ago about being with the same sex they turned me down. That is sad that we would be discriminated based on or sexual orientation. AIDS/HIV is a disease that affects all races, genders & people… Straight people (2 of my friends have HIV and they are straight and they can donate blood. This needs to stop. There are people dying due to blood shortage.
Just 4 clarification:::; my 2 str8 frenz are not given blood cause of their current status. My comment was more of the fact that they are allowed as heterosexual people….. THIS ALL NEEDS TO STOP !
As a gay guy who happens to be a virgin, I give blood often. It has always bothered me knowing that I soon as I settle into a sexual (& responsible) relationship, I will no longer be able to donate blood. There are no questions asked by the Red Cross that discuss sexual promiscuity for donors gay or straight. But it does single out gay males. I say screen all the blood that’s donated & let’s stop discriminating against people who are saving lives.
and to think that in many parts of Alabama ive heard about shortages in blood donors.
Women who have had anonymous unprotected sex with men are also at great risk. In fact, married women can become infected through their own extramarital affair or their spouses. Should women be barred from giving blood, too? I don’t think so. It’s ridiculous and offensive.
Currently, in the US, the group with the largest increase of new HIV infections is found in African-Americans. While making up only 14% of the general population they account for 48% of new infections. If we follow their logic, we should be banning African-Americans, not gays.
WELL I THINK THIS IS A BUNCH OF CRAP! I HAVE DONATED OVER 3 GALLONS OF BLOOD IN MY TIME OF DONATING, AND EVERYTIME I HAVE TO LIE ON THE COMPUTER QUESTIONAIRE, OR THEY WILL NOT ACCEPT MY APPLICATION! THERE HASN’T BEEN A THING WRONG WITH THE 3 GALLONS I’VE GIVEN SO FAR. P.S. HERE’S A SECRET I WAS GAY THE WHOLE TIME, LOL HAHA. WELL EVERYNE TAKE CARE AND STAY IN THE RACE TO FIGHT THIS STUPID BAN. XELAJAMES
I actually went with a friend of mine who is also gay and ablutophobic and we managed to stir some courage in him and he was willing to donate and they kicked us out because we’d had gay sex before and then they submitted our information to the FDA as people who can’t donate because of that. I’ve also run into those mobile centers and they overlooked it but there should be no need to lie.
In Sweden we have the same problem. However, health athourities (bad spell) examined it and came up with new regulations that weren’t discriminating. That’s when the healthcare pushed back saying that allowing gay men to donate blood would make the bloodplasma impossible to sell!?! Apparently they make a couple of millions annually dealing it to medical companies worldwide. Perhaps there is a similar motive here.
I really hope he wins! i was heartbroken when i found out i couldn’t donate blood. I had always planned on donating when i reach 16, so to find out i couldn’t honestly donate blood while having had sex in the last 12 months was absolutely soul crushing. They have the technology to detect HIV and AIDS now so the ban is pure discrimination and they are missing out on possible donors. I am not old enough to donate blood yet so i hope the ban is dissolved by the time i can. Otherwise i will just lie. No way i’m gonna let the Red Cross deny people of my blood just coz i like guys!
Are the blood banks relying solely on what people SAY? If so anyone receiving blood is in danger. If they are testing all the blood for diseases anyway they why bother asking donors questions at all? Something isn’t adding up here.