The Red Cross has been experiencing low numbers of blood donations and consequently the ban on donations from gay and bisexual men is being reexamined, according to a report by CNN.
Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois is urging the organization to consider lifting the ban for the sake of people that benefit from blood transfusions. “This is a matter of life and death and we are turning away over 50,000 healthy men who want to donate blood,” Quigley said to CNN. “A straight person who has unsafe sex with multiple partners can give blood, and that creates a greater risk than a gay person in a monogamous relationship.”
Quigley, along with former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry, penned a letter to the organization calling for the promotion of a study that could help overturn the ban. “We remain concerned that a blanket deferral of MSM for any length of time both perpetuates the unwarranted discrimination against the bisexual and gay community and prevents healthy men from donating blood without a definitive finding of added benefit to the safety of the blood supply,” said the letter.
The ban was created in 1980, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic swept through the gay community in high numbers. At that time, it was not known that the virus was spread through the blood until it showed up in the blood of hemophiliacs that received transfusions. As a result, if a man signing up to be a donor admitted to having sex with a man since 1977, when the epidemic supposedly surfaced, he was removed from the donor’s list.
Gay men are still considered a high-risk community, accounting for half of 1.2 million people living with the disease in this country. However, experts have said that risky behavior, such as promiscuity and sharing drug needles, causes the disease to spread quicker than a person’s sexual orientation. Adam Denney, a gay man and wannabe donor agrees. “Yes, gay men are still a high-risk community, but so are minority women, and there are no standards prohibiting them from donating. There would be rightful outrage against that kind of blanket population ban,” said Denney. “I am banned based on one reason only, my sexual orientation. It’s totally discriminatory.”
