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"Federal ban on gay men's blood donation to be reconsidered." It's about time!

luckycharm318

luckycharm318

New member
"Federal ban on gay men's blood donation to be reconsidered." It's about time!

I just caught this story on my Facebook news feed.

This is just a snippet, click the link to read the full story.
Under Food and Drug Administration rules, men who have had sex -- even once -- with another man since 1977 are not permitted to give blood. The rule was implemented in 1983, sparked by concerns that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was tainting the blood supply. Screening tests to identify HIV-positive blood had not been developed. The policy was seen as a safety measure.

But today, with the availability of more accurate testing, activists, blood organizations and several U.S. senators say the lifetime ban is "medically and scientifically unwarranted" and are calling for change.

The Federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability will consider the issue in meetings June 10 and 11 in Rockville, Maryland. The committee makes recommendations to the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA.

Medical opinions vary; some experts say that lifting the ban could pose health risks to blood recipients.

The Human Rights Campaign, the American Red Cross, America's Blood Centers and AABB, formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks, support easing the lifetime ban to allow gay blood donors. In a joint statement, the blood organizations said that safety was the first priority and that potential donors should be screened more fairly, regardless of sexual orientation.

About three months ago, Sen. John Kerry and 17 other senators signed a letter to the FDA blasting its "outdated" policy.

Gay men, including those who are in monogamous relationships, are forbidden from contributing blood for the rest of their lives, while "a heterosexual who has had sex with a prostitute need only wait a year [before giving blood]. That does not strike me as a sound scientific conclusion," Kerry wrote in a March 9 letter.
Click to expand...

Yay for change! Where's Obama on this one? :roflmao: What strange logic some people have though. :nope:
 
There are all kinds of blood bans in place. I have not been able to give blood since the late 80s because I ate beef in Europe back then and may have been exposed to mad cow disease. :shrugs:
 
tsst said:
There are all kinds of blood bans in place. I have not been able to give blood since the late 80s because I ate beef in Europe back then and may have been exposed to mad cow disease. :shrugs:
Click to expand...

Same thing with Tara. She was 2. She's 31 now.
 
I always wondered why the plasma place I go to never allowed gay men to donate (or women who had sex with gay men). I always thought it was the stupid company...never knew it was FDA rules. Interesting, I hope the rules do change.
 
Oh THIS law brings up memories. I was suspended from high school for protesting the Bloodmobile that was parked out front after finding out I couldn't donate. And then circulating a petition to all of the teachers. And then getting a group together to stand with me and block the bus' entrance.

What can I say? I liked rioting in my younger days. :grin01:
 
Wow did any one else know only gay men got AIDS and that blood banks don't bother testing for diseases anyway? LOL, it's about time:)
 
Yeah, apparently that is why both of my parents are HIV positive.... Luckily non of their children are... and I have donated blood a couple of times, though I am not sure if I can anymore because of me getting deployed to Afghanistan... Who knows...
 
I see the issue to be about blood, not gay. The question specifically asks if you are a male who has had sex with another male, not if you're a gay male... A hetersexual male who experimented once would face the same scrutiny as the gay male. There's also a questions asking if you're a male who has had paid for sex that can prevent you from donating.

Pierce your own ear and you can't donate for a year, get a tattoo in an accrediated shop in certain states and you can't donate for a year. The questionaire covers a wide variety of issues designed to give the reciepient healthy blood.

The fact that gay men may now be able to donate tells me that science is advancing which I find to be a GREAT accomplishment. If I ever need blood, I really don't care if the donater is gay, straight, black, white, male, female, so long as the blood is healthy.

I certainly hope that everyone who feels this to be a major win for blood donations, as do I, will be standing in line this holiday weekend to share their gift of life. My appointment is Friday at noon, when's yours?:)
 
dwyn127 said:
I certainly hope that everyone who feels this to be a major win for blood donations, as do I, will be standing in line this holiday weekend to share their gift of life. My appointment is Friday at noon, when's yours?:)
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Can't donate. Lived in Africa too recently.

But, since gay males certainly no longer have the corner on the HIV infection market, and since samples are reliably tested anyway, this would be a win for the blood supply and, probabilistically, for us all.
 
Well, in the context of that time (1983), when little was known about the virus (note it wasn't even named HIV, yet), I suppose they (the FDA) were trying to broadly/generally/clumsily protect people at the time.
And I am talking about the pre-donation questionnaire.

That that law is no longer in line with what we know about the virus, and the methods used to test blood product donations, is a discouraging thing.
I am glad it has come up for scrutiny. Time for a new 'questionnaire'.

I have spent a lifetime of waiting for people to catch up to my way of thinking on a countless number of subjects. [/sarcasm] :laugh:
 
Heck, my healthy, heterosexual husband cannot donate blood in this country, either, because he was raised to adulthood in the United Kingdom, and had visited a farm at some point in his childhood.

That's about as stupid as the Gay man blood ban, imho. Both policies need to be abandoned.
 
Irish Eyes (Mrs.Z) said:
Heck, my healthy, heterosexual husband cannot donate blood in this country, either, because he was raised to adulthood in the United Kingdom, and had visited a farm at some point in his childhood.

That's about as stupid as the Gay man blood ban, imho. Both policies need to be abandoned.
Click to expand...
But given that mad cow disease wasn't considered by most of American mainstream culture to be punishment for and evidence of God's abhorrence for aberrant and perverted behavior, and given that the government never turned a blind eye to mad cow despite the fact that people were dying of it right and left since they were people no one thought were important, I doubt it zings your husband quite as much to be turned away from the blood bank as it might a gay man.
 
This is wonderful news. My boyfriend, who is bi, hasn't be able to donate blood since he once, foolishly, told the truth on his pre-donation questionnaire. With such an urgent need for blood, it's silly to rule out such a large pool of potential donors. I personally know many straight people who also refuse to donate, as a form of protest against this very policy.
 
Facts about blood donations. There is a list of 56 but these are the ones I find most interesting.


More than 4.5 million patients need blood transfusions each year in the U.S. and Canada.

43,000 pints: amount of donated blood used each day in the U.S. and Canada.

Someone needs blood every two seconds.

Only 38 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood – less than 10 percent do annually.

One pint of blood can save up to three lives.

Cancer, transplant and trauma patients, and patients undergoing open-heart surgery may require platelet transfusions to survive.

A patient could be forced to pass up a lifesaving organ, if compatible blood is not available to support the transplant.

Thirteen tests (11 for infectious diseases) are performed on each unit of donated blood.

The rarest blood type is the one not on the shelf when it's needed by a patient.

If only one more percent of all Americans would give blood, blood shortages would disappear for the foreseeable future.

500,000: the number of Americans who donated blood in the days following the September 11 attacks.

Blood donation. It's about an hour of your time. It's About Life.
 
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