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Gay Blood is Good Blood

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
Why shouldn't gay people be able to give blood? What about being gay suddenly makes our blood bad? Do the people in the government think that homosexuality can pass through blood or something? LOL
 

dawny0826

Mother Heathen
The need for blood is so great, I assure you that you wouldn't be turned away from giving blood, simply for being homosexual. If you were denied the opportunity, there was another concern.
 

sandandfoam

Veteran Member
There's tons of reasons they won't take blood from a person from the countries they've lived in to whether they've received transfusions themselves.
I've never heard of being gay as a reason.
 

Gunfingers

Happiness Incarnate
Why shouldn't gay people be able to give blood? What about being gay suddenly makes our blood bad? Do the people in the government think that homosexuality can pass through blood or something? LOL

I gather from the lol that this is at least in part said in jest, but i feel compelled to answer nonetheless.

A) The American Red Cross is not a government agency.

B) They do not refuse to accept from all homosexuals, just male ones.

C) They do this because Gay and bisexual males are regarded by the CDC as a high-risk group for infection of HIV/AIDS, (CDC Pamphlet) which would, in their estimation, create an unreasonable risk of accidental infection as well as increase cost by giving them more blood to test that they can't use.
 

Nanda

Polyanna
Looking at statistics and going by that logic, the red cross shouldn't be accepting blood from black and hispanic people. Can you imagine the **** storm if they put that policy into action?
 

Mr Cheese

Well-Known Member
as a former resident of the UK, I beleive I am unable to give blood in USA
as I may have mad cows disease

(obviously by now I would have started having seizures, foaming at the mouth and drop dead by now...but a law is a law)

cow.jpg


Why am I not allowed to donate blood? | New Jersey Society of Blood Bank Professionals
You are not eligible to donate if:
From January 1, 1980, through December 31, 1996, you spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 3 months or more, in the United Kingdom (UK), or
From January 1, 1980, to present, you had a blood transfusion in any country(ies) in the (UK). The UK includes any of the countries listed below.
Channel Islands
England
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar
Isle of Man
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Wales
You were a member of the of the U.S. military, a civilian military employee, or a dependent of a member of the U.S. military who spent a total time of 6 months on or associated with a military base in any of the following areas during the specified time frames
From 1980 through 1990 – Belgium, the Netherlands (Holland), or Germany
From 1980 through 1996 – Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy or Greece.
You spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 5 years or more from January 1, 1980, to present, in any combination of country(ies) in Europe, including
in the UK from 1980 through 1996 as listed in above
on or associated with military bases as described above, and
in other countries in Europe as listed below:
Albania
Austria
Belgium
Bosnia/Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland (Republic of)
Italy
Kosovo (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Montenegro (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
Netherlands (Holland)
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Serbia (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
Slovak Republic (Slovakia)
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Yugoslavia (Federal Republic includes Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia)
 

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
I don't see how gay males are any higher a risk group for giving blood then heterosexual females. Heterosexual females also make up a large percentage of people with HIV
 

tumbleweed41

Resident Liberal Hippie
as a former resident of the UK, I beleive I am unable to give blood in USA
as I may have mad cows disease

(obviously by now I would have started having seizures, foaming at the mouth and drop dead by now...but a law is a law)



Why am I not allowed to donate blood? | New Jersey Society of Blood Bank Professionals
You are not eligible to donate if:
From January 1, 1980, through December 31, 1996, you spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 3 months or more, in the United Kingdom (UK), or
From January 1, 1980, to present, you had a blood transfusion in any country(ies) in the (UK). The UK includes any of the countries listed below.
Channel Islands
England

Wow. While I do not live in Jersey, I do fall under these restrictions.
And have given blood at least yearly since 1990.
 

Mr Cheese

Well-Known Member
Wow. While I do not live in Jersey, I do fall under these restrictions.
And have given blood at least yearly since 1990.

you could be spreading mad cow, dude

have you felt the need to rattle around with tremors, foam at the mouth
keel over and die....

recently?
 
Hi everyone,

As a person who strongly supports gay rights, and as a member of the bleeding disorders community, I have a unique perspective on this issue. I think the gay community is totally and tragically off base on this issue, it's not about discrimination, it's about protecting the blood supply.

About 25 of every 100,000 male births in the U.S. have a bleeding disorder, most of them are severe. When the AIDS epidemic struck in the 1970's, it was called "gay pneumonia". Almost everyone with severe bleeding disorders got HIV, because they relied on blood transfusions on a regular basis for treatment. Now they are almost all dead, I don't know the official figure but it may have been as many as 15,000 people in the U.S.

It was a real tragedy. Today, you won't find a lot of hemophiliacs older than 25 because they are all dead. When I go for a regular checkup I get the feeling that the doctors who work in this field are somewhat traumatized, like they failed, because all their patients born before 1980 or so are dead. Even more hemophiliacs got Hepatitis A and B later from the contaminated blood supply. Then, around 1985-86, another mysterious disease contaminated the blood supply, it turned out to be Hepatitis C. These diseases aren't as deadly as HIV but they are serious. I think almost everyone with a severe bleeding disorder who is 24 and older got Hep C, although I personally didn't get it (I was one of the few lucky ones).

Part of the tragedy is that there was some political and economic pressure NOT to ban gay men from donating blood. The medical community hesitated to impose the ban. By the time they imposed the ban it was too late, babies, children, men with hemophilia and their spouses or girlfriends -- they all got HIV and Hepatitis.

Around 1983, the FDA imposed a lifetime ban for blood donations on men who have had sex with other men (MSM) since 1977. This ban is also in place in many European countries. The reason for the ban has absolutely nothing to do with discrimination against gay men. It has to do with the fact that HIV and Hepatitis are thousands of times more prevalent in MSM. The FDA explains the policy here:

Blood Donations from Men Who Have Sex with Other Men Questions and Answers

Men who have had sex with other men, at any time since 1977 (the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the United States) are currently deferred as blood donors. This is because MSM are, as a group, at increased risk for HIV, hepatitis B and certain other infections that can be transmitted by transfusion.
...
Men who have had sex with men since 1977 have an HIV prevalence (the total number of cases of a disease that are present in a population at a specific point in time) 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first time blood donors and 8000 times higher than repeat blood donors (American Red Cross). Even taking into account that 75% of HIV infected men who have sex with men already know they are HIV positive and would be unlikely to donate blood, the HIV prevalence in potential donors with history of male sex with males is 200 times higher than first time blood donors and 2000 times higher than repeat blood donors.
...
Men who have had sex with men account for the largest single group of blood donors who are found HIV positive by blood donor testing.
...
Blood donor testing using current advanced technologies has greatly reduced the risk of HIV transmission but cannot yet detect all infected donors or prevent all transmission by transfusions. While today's highly sensitive tests fail to detect less than one in a million HIV infected donors, it is important to remember that in the US there are over 20 million transfusions of blood, red cell concentrates, plasma or platelets every year. Therefore, even a failure rate of 1 in a million can be significant if there is an increased risk of undetected HIV in the blood donor population.
I can't emphasize this enough: keeping the blood supply safe is very, very serious. The gay rights community is way off base on this issue. This is not an issue where we need to treat people equally. This is an issue where we need to do whatever it takes to keep the blood supply safe and we need to err on the side of caution. Even with the ban in place, there have been 9 confirmed cases of people getting HIV from the blood supply since 1991, the last case occurring in 2002.

I think people should be aware of this terrible tragedy and the gay community should not make the mistake of politicizing a medical issue. I think it's a real shame that gay rights groups and some Democratic senators have put pressure on the FDA to remove the ban.

Apparently the FDA is now considering changing the policy to only ban MSM for one year instead of for life. I think it's the wrong decision but I hope I'm wrong and history doesn't repeat itself.
 

Mike182

Flaming Queer
In England gays are not allowed to give blood. It's a hang over from a past culture that necessitates a direct link between gay people and HIV.

It is being fought over here, and it won't last for too much longer. I can't give blood anyway, because of my diabetes, but while I can accept that as a completely valid reason, being gay and healthy is not a valid reason by any stretch of the words valid or reason.
 

Gunfingers

Happiness Incarnate
They can't: You have to point out you're gay or have had sex with men, so they can tell you to go away. :shrug:

:D
Do continue this point, my girlfriend is a part time actress and as such has a lot of gay friends*. She says it's common for gay guys who test themselves regularly and know they aren't infected to simply lie on donation forms and donate blood.



*Don't you love when stereotypes keep true?
 
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