Ban on gay blood donors revisited

[Roon]

Should gay men be allowed to donate blood? A government health committee is re-examining that question today.

A regulation created at the height of the 1980s' AIDS epidemic banned men who have had sex with another man since 1977 from ever giving blood.

Advocacy groups, blood-collection organizations and some members of Congress are calling for the Food and Drug Administration to revise the lifetime ban, which has been reviewed twice in the past 10 years, but left unchanged.

Gay rights organizations say the regulation discriminates against gay and bisexual men. They point out that heterosexual men who have had sex with an HIV-positive partner or a prostitute are barred from donating blood for only 12 months after that contact.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37599992/ns/health-aids/

[dipsydoodle]

1. Cut me and I bleed

That's like saying should I take blood from a black person. Of course I fucking would - do I look paranoid.

[moriah]

2. But.... but... it might give them the gay!

Seriously... if they took it to a year of celibacy from homosexual intercourse, wouldn't that likely exclude most homosexuals? Bisexuals might get a pass, but I don't see it increasing the blood pool much. Then again, any little bit would help.

I understand why they created the exclusion -- even with protection the virus is more easily transmitted from men to men than it is from a woman to a man, or between two women. But I do think the policy could use some revision. My dad died of HIV last summer. Death from that virus is awful to watch, and worse to experience. But I have a feeling a lot more people die from not being able to get a critical blood transfusion. At least maybe open it up for people who have the rarer blood types?

Oh, and a PSA: Go get tested! Don't donate blood just to get tested!

[Roon]

4. Sorry to hear about your Father..

Poz for over 20 years now. :hug:

[Touchdown]

3. I actually had to explain this law to a doctor once when asked if I donate blood.

She was like "Really? That's masugarnah!" I laughed. I'm not Jewish so I know I butchered the spelling.