Why are some people not allowed to donate blood?
Kelly
KVOA-TV
Tucson AZ
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Why are some people not allowed to donate blood?
The American Red Cross in Southern Arizona is still dangerously low on "O"
positive and "B" negative blood types.
Despite the desperate situation the Red Cross cannot allow certain members
of society to donate.
Gay men are banned for life from donating according to the Food and Drug
Administration.
Matt Haynes of Tucson can't believe it. He's tried to donate over the years
but he's gay and he's on the do not donate list, "that really infuriates me,
talk about blatant discrimination."
According to the FDA gay men are 60 times more likely to be infected with
HIV/Aids than the general population and the regulation banning gay donors
is not based on, "any judgement regarding male sex with males, but on the
well documented association of this behavior with risk of transfusion
transmissible infections."
Haynes isn't buying that argument, "For whatever reason they still want to
attach the word HIV and Aids to gay males when studies show that now the
biggest group that it is attacking is heterosexual women."
The Center for Disease Controls and Prevention recently found that more
women are contracting HIV/Aids.
According to the CDC the estimated number of aids cases in the United States
increased by 10% among females and just 7% among males.
In 2004, according to the CDC, women accounted for 27% of all new cases of
HIV/Aids.
Despite those numbers it's gay men who are banned from donating blood and
Matt Haynes wants that policy changed, "I'm healthy why can't I donate? I
want to donate, please let me donate."
If it were up to the Red Cross Matt and other gay men would be allowed to
donate but for now Haynes will have to find another way to help those in
need.
Kelly
Gay City News
New York City
Thursday, January 11, 2007
End The Bloody Ban
By: PAUL SCHINDLER
The New York Blood Center, which is the primary warehousing facility serving
hospitals and trauma centers throughout the metropolitan area, is reporting
a potentially life-threatening shortage of available blood product. Already,
Type O negative blood and Type B negative, two relatively uncommon
types-both of which have less than a two-day supply available-are being
rationed, curbing some elective surgery.
The Blood Center warns that the region could be just a matter of days away
from those restrictions being applied to the entire blood supply.
Though downturns in blood supply are not uncommon in the immediate wake of
the holiday season, the problem is more severe this year than in the past.
New York faces its worst blood shortfall since the days following the 9/11
attacks.
In this context, it is worth remembering that gay men continue to be barred
from giving blood, according to rules formulated by the Food and Drug
Administration back in 1985, a time of frantic concern over the safety of
the nation's blood supply and doubts whether it could be adequately screened
for the HIV virus.
That situation has long since passed. Donations are now tested for HIV and a
variety of other blood-borne diseases, but still the stigma attached to "any
man who has had sex with another man since 1977" continues.
In his 1995 book "Virtually Normal," Andrew Sullivan argued that the two
main political goals of the gay and lesbian community should be the right to
serve in the U.S. military and the right to marry. His view was based in
part on what was probably an incorrect assessment of how difficult those
goals would prove and also in his Tory opposition to identity-based politics
typified for him by nondiscrimination and hate crimes legislation.
But at its core, Sullivan's argument was also based in a noble notion,
predicated on his understanding of what it means to be part of a society.
From that perspective, assisting in the defense of one's nation and having
one's family acknowledged in law are fundamental to citizenship, separating
those who belong from those who don't.
Denying access to the institutions of marriage and to military service,
then, are damning indictments, signaling the gay community's
disenfranchisement from the body politic and the fabric of society.
Surely, the ability to offer one's blood in a humanitarian gesture to a
neighbor ranks right up there with marriage and defense of the nation. At a
time when this city faces a crisis in the ready supply of life-saving blood,
it is irrational to say the least to exclude gay men from making our
contribution.
It is also a stinging affront that should not be countenanced.
"Kelly" <Web_W...@KellysList.com> wrote in message
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Words On The Screen
Wotsy
A Hermaphrodite
the test can now screen out HIV, I am in no hurry to fight them over a
policy that will likely hurt them more than me that they implement.
the bigger issue is now we must continue to do research and promote HIV
prevention.
Louie B
A Hermaphrodite
dick snot in his rectum........
Kelly
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Santa Cruz CA
January 16, 2007
Gay student gets hate mail for activism
By Matt King
Sentinel staff writer
SANTA CRUZ - A Harbor High School student who protested rules that outlaw
gay men from donating blood is receiving hate-filled and harassing mail at
the school.
Ronnie Childers, Harbor's senior class president, said Monday he's received
about 50 letters attacking his sexuality since his complaints about national
blood donor rules, and his photo, were published in a Sentinel story last
month. The story later attracted state and national attention.
Some of the letters were hostile enough that Childers forwarded them to
police, "just to be on the safe side"
"There are a couple key phrases, 'I know where you go to school,'" he said.
"I think adults need to understand that letters like this are inappropriate"
Santa Cruz Police Department officials could not be reached Monday to
comment on the letters.
The controversy began at a Red Cross blood drive at Harbor High on Dec. 14.
There, Childers was prohibited from donating because he is gay. Guidelines
set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration don't allow any man who's had
sex with any other man to give blood.
The Red Cross and other blood-collection organizations have lobbied the FDA
to relax the rules, which were established during the AIDS scare in the
1980s, but, so far, the FDA has resisted.
Some school leaders have asked whether it makes sense to have blood drives
at schools if students are required to divulge their sexual histories. After
considering halting blood drives at the school, Harbor students have decided
to host another drive this spring, though all students will need to get
parental permission. California law requires anyone younger than 17 seeking
to donate blood to get the consent of a parent or guardian.
"As much as I think we need to protest what's happening to Ronnie and the
gay community, I think stopping efforts to save lives would be the worst way
to protest," senior class Vice President Ariel Bowman said. "Obviously
people need to give blood. I think we need to be bigger and continue to
give"
Harbor Principal Nancy Tocchini said the school is hopeful that pressure on
state and federal legislators will lead to new rules at the FDA.
"We're going to put together some kind of letter. And instead of sending it
directly to the FDA, where it will get ignored, we're going to start hitting
federal and state legislators," Tocchini said. "Because if the state
Legislature also gets behind this then maybe they'll listen"
Some of the letters sent to Childers deride gay people as "evil" or admonish
him to "think about it. Sex with the same sex is weird and sick" Some were
sent from the area as evidenced by local postmarks.
Despite Santa Cruz's liberal reputation, an anti-gay sentiment has gained
traction in recent years, said Merrie Schaller, a leader of the county's Gay
Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Alliance.
"Santa Cruz is a relatively good place to live if you're queer, but I'm not
surprised," Schaller said. "Things are so much better than they were 20
years ago, but in the last couple of years we've become more of a scapegoat,
it's become more acceptable to do this kind of thing"
Read the original story on the Harbor High blood drive controversy here at
www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/December/24/local/stories/01local.htm
Contact Matt King at mk...@santacruzsentinel.com
Kelly
might need blood now or in the future.
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