SOUNDBITES — “I looked like a criminal [in that Ottawa Citizen photo]. I don’t think I’m a hero or pioneer. It’s about believing in what’s right. Lawyers can argue the hell out of it. At the end of the day, there are people who need blood and there are healthy donors. There’s no rational basis, medical or scientific, to exclude gay men from giving blood.” —Kyle Freeman, whose engaged in a legal battle with Canadian Blood Services over its policy banning gay men from donating [Xtra]
Chris
Amen. There’s no rational basis to exclude any healthy person from giving blood. When we need it so badly, why turn any blood donor away because of “statistics” when it can easily be determined whether their blood is healthy or not?
Keith Kimmel
Even the statistical argument is a epic fail. Facts show that even statistically, gay men have about the same chance as straights for being infected. Its all hype and bullshit. This policy needs to die here in the United States and die today.
threshold
Blood can be stored for months. Even assuming someone has been recently infected with HIV, it would be easy enough to not use the donated blood until the donor donates again and the new blood is tested. If they’re negative, then the blood that was donated earlier is guaranteed to be 100% safe.
Anyway, I never understood why they just couldn’t ask if you use protection. 99% of the time new HIV infections are due to UNPROTECTED sex.
jason
Notice also how the blood bank always comes up with this canard about “erring on the side of caution”. Well, if they’re erring on the side of caution, why are they accepting blood from heterosexual men who engage in unprotected anal sex with females? And why are they accepting blood from females who engage in unprotected anal sex?
If the blood bank was truly erring on the side of caution, it wouldn’t be any less cautious with the anal sex-loving examples I’ve given. The fact that it is speaks volumes about its prejudice towards gay men.
jason
Another thing I forgot to mention is that a lot of the fear towards blood from gay men is that hetero’s think gay blood will make you gay. They think homosexuality is catchy.
Cam
No. 5 · jason said….
Another thing I forgot to mention is that a lot of the fear towards blood from gay men is that hetero’s think gay blood will make you gay. They think homosexuality is catchy.
___________________________
SHHHHHH!!!!! Weren’t you at the last “Gay” meeting?!? You aren’t supposed to tell anybody that! Once the secret gets out we’ll have to go back to using broadway and Cher songs to recruit!!!
LOGIC
THERE IS DEFINITELY A SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR EXCLUDING GAY MEN FROM GIVING BLOOD.
How convenient is it that you left out the important fact that MANY GROUPS- not just gays- who are in high risk categories cannot donate blood. This is not a matter of human rights, this is a matter of minimizing risks. What if there is a false negative test? Then that HIV+ blood goes into the pool of ”good blood” and violates a healthy person’s safety.
Why take this risk?
Gays are not being discriminated because of sexuality, anyone belonging to a high risk group is simply being asked to be left out; that goes with intravenous drug users, and people who lived in Subsaharan Africa (like my parents).
Would someone be foolish enough as to say ‘There is no medical justification to exclude junkies from donating blood’?
Why not address the core issue of lowering HIV/STD rates in gay men; if there is any discrimination it has been at the level of neglecting the gay demographic’s public health needs.
Lesbians are aloud to donate blood; this is logical because the policy of excluding gay men has nothing to do with disenfranchising ppl based on sexuality, rather it has much to do with MINIMIZING RISKS!!!!!
BY THE WAY TO THE EDITOR OF QWERTY,
How pathetic and intellectually dishonest of you is it that you conveniently omitted the fact that your ‘victim’, Kyle Freeman, ACTUALLY TESTED POSITIVE FOR advanced SYPHILLIS IN 2002. This is who you want people to get donated blood from??
“The discovery Mr. Freeman had syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that can damage the heart, brain and eyes if left untreated, was made only after Canadian Blood Services screened his donated blood.
He had been tested for diseases previously and wasn’t found to be sick, court heard, but by the time he gave blood he had been infected”
-> that was from the National Post, Canada.
http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=2069573
How selfish!
His desire to spread his blood, does not trump the rights and lives of innocent people who rely on the Canadian Blood Services.
Why is QWERTY CHAMPIONING THIS SELF-IMPORTANT MEGALOMANIAC, I’M SURE WORTHIER CAUSES COULD BE ADDRESSED?
Logi
THERE IS DEFINITELY A SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR EXCLUDING GAY MEN FROM GIVING BLOOD.
How convenient is it that you left out the important fact that MANY GROUPS- not just gays- who are in high risk categories cannot donate blood. This is not a matter of human rights, this is a matter of minimizing risks. What if there is a false negative test? Then that HIV+ blood goes into the pool of ”good blood” and violates a healthy person’s safety.
Why take this risk?
Gays are not being discriminated because of sexuality, anyone belonging to a high risk group is simply being asked to be left out; that goes with intravenous drug users, and people who lived in Subsaharan Africa (like my parents).
Would someone be foolish enough as to say ‘There is no medical justification to exclude junkies from donating blood’?
Why not address the core issue of lowering HIV/STD rates in gay men; if there is any discrimination it has been at the level of neglecting the gay demographic’s public health needs.
Lesbians are aloud to donate blood; this is logical because the policy of excluding gay men has nothing to do with disenfranchising ppl based on sexuality, rather it has much to do with MINIMIZING RISKS!!!!!
BY THE WAY TO THE EDITOR OF QWERTY,
How pathetic and intellectually dishonest of you is it that you conveniently omitted the fact that your ‘victim’, Kyle Freeman, ACTUALLY TESTED POSITIVE FOR advanced SYPHILLIS IN 2002. This is who you want people to get donated blood from??
“The discovery Mr. Freeman had syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that can damage the heart, brain and eyes if left untreated, was made only after Canadian Blood Services screened his donated blood.
He had been tested for diseases previously and wasn’t found to be sick, court heard, but by the time he gave blood he had been infected”
-> that was from the National Post, Canada.
http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=2069573
How selfish!
His desire to spread his blood, does not trump the rights and lives of innocent people who rely on the Canadian Blood Services.
Why is QWERTY CHAMPIONING THIS SELF-IMPORTANT MEGALOMANIAC, I’M SURE WORTHIER CAUSES COULD BE ADDRESSED?
Michael vdB
So CBS did their job in screening and caught it before it entered the blood supply. Does that mean he cannot sue on the basis of a discriminatory rule? He should not be able to give blood because he has Syphillis, not because he is gay. Just because you are gay doesn’t mean you automatically have Syphillis, AIDS, whatever.
And to me, only self-important people feel the need to post the same thing more than once. BTW, Qwerty is a keyboard…the blog is called Queerty.
Logi
Obviously not every man who has sex with men has syphilis or HIV. However virtually every man who has sex with men, simply by virtue of that, is at a MUCH higher risk for unsafe sex practices which is why there is a higher incidence of sexually transmitted diseases in the gay populace.
That represents a risk that is NOT worth taking. Just as it is not worth taking concerning intravenous drug users.
If it is hard to understand lets put it this way: Mr.A (gay man) has sex with Mr.B (who, like many people infected by HIV, doesn’t know he even has HIV). 1 WEEK LATER Mr.A decides to donate blood even though he the rules explicitly prohibit him. While the tests are being done on the blood of Mr.A, a false negative is reported because the viral titre is so low.
END RESULT: Mr.A’s blood taints the donated blood pool and there is nothing the CBC could have done (other than asking people to be honest).
The situation I outline is the most tragic of scenarios and it could also happen with a straight man or straight woman. Because the rate of HIV infection is much higher in gay men because gay men have MUCH MORE sex with many different partners they don’t know and have anal sex which is the riskiest sexual act for contracting HIV, the Canadian Blood Services has LOGICALLY implemented the no-gay-men, no-intravenous-drug-user, no-people-from-area’s-of-the-world-where-HIV-is-endemic-strategy.
It’s not discrimination. It’s using good discerning.
If someone says you are too short for the amusement ride, you’re more likely to fall off and you can’t come on. Is that discriminating against short people?