San Jose State Bans Red Cross Over FDA Gay Blood Donation Rule

[DeSwiss]

San Jose State Bans Red Cross Over FDA Rule
University Wants Rule Barring Gay Men From Donating Blood Lifted

The Washington Independent
By Arthur Allen 02/06/2008

Last week, San Jose State University became the first college in the nation to kick the Red Cross off its campus. The university stopped all blood drives until the Food and Drug Administration revises rules that prohibit gay men from donating blood unless they’ve been abstinent since 1977. The school’s president, Don Kassing, said that the FDA policy, in singling out gay men, violated campus anti-discrimination policies.

The 1,000 or so pints of blood collected at San Jose State each year represent only about 1 percent of the blood collected in San Francisco and the peninsula below it. But the blood banks worry that this decision could set a dangerous precedent for other universities where blood drives have been targeted by gay activists. “We feel that this was a terribly misguided decision,” said Lisa Bloch, spokeswoman for the Blood Center of the Pacific.

That said, the blood bankers are equally unhappy with the FDA for refusing to budge on a blood donation policy that many see as overly cautious, and some as politically motivated. While the administration maintains that science supports screening out gay men’s blood, some feel that the administration may be kowtowing to religious conservatives who find the idea distasteful. “Until January 2009, this isn’t going to change,” a major blood banking officer told me. “There is a segment of the public that is scared. They don’t understand what the risks are, and how they can be managed.”

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[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. Good. That is such a bullshit requirement. Hell, most Republican lawmakers would be exempt from

donating blood, if they were honest.

[dbackjon]

3. Indeed - wouldn't you rather KNOW the donor is gay

Then have them lie?

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

4. Why would it matter whether the donor is gay? If someone wants to donate blood, why should being

gay prevent them from doing so? :shrug:

[DarkTirade]

5. Um... you do realize that you just used the phrase 'Republican lawmaker' in the same sentance as the

the word 'honest', right? :shrug:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

7. Yes, and the word "if", as well. IF they were honest, well they'd personally

be happier, perhaps.

What can I say? The R's are so desperate to resist temptation they try to pass laws to keep people (them) from the evil of "giving in to the flesh".:shrug:

[DarkTirade]

8. 'If' implies a possibility.

:P

[dbackjon]

2. Good for San Jose State!!

This is un-medically justified religous-based discrimination.

[hulklogan]

6. Don't they test the blood anyway?

More bigoted and baseless anti-gay discrimination, and I applaud San Jose State from standing up to it.