THEGAYUK

Tag: Blood Donation

All the latest breaking news on blood donation. Browse THEGAYUK’s complete collection of news, articles and commentary on blood donation.

  • MP Sarah Champion Tweets Her Support For Blood Donations From Gay Men

    Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, has tweeted her support for the end of banning gay and bisexual from giving blood.

    Labour MP Sarah Champion has tweeted her support for bringing an end to a discriminatory ruling that forbids men who have sex with men from donating blood, unless they have been celibate for 12 months. According to TheyWorkForYou.com Ms. Champion has “consistently” voted in favour of legislations that affect the rights of LGBTs in the UK.

    The petition calls for the Government to end the 12-month deferral ban on gay men donating blood. It calls for a replacement “equal and individual risk assessment based process for all blood donors.”Ms. Champion tweeted a link to an official petition site, which is delivered direct to the Government. When the petition, started by Robbie Beveridge, reaches 10,000 signatures the government officially responds to the petitioner, at 100,000 signatures the petition is considered for debate in Parliament.

    The debate about gay, bisexual and MSM’s ability to donate blood has become a hot topic in recent months with one campaign, Free To Donate already achieving over 37,000 signatures.

    Ms. Champion was made Shadow Minister for Preventing abuse, a new position in the shadow cabinet. The appointment was made by Labour’s new leader Jeremy Corbyn.

  • THEGAYUK supports The Freedom To Donate Blood Campaign

    TheGayUK’s editor has come out in support of a movement to change the laws surrounding blood donations from HIV-negative gay men in the UK.

    Speaking to Freedom to Donate, Jake Hook, THEGAYUK’s Editor in Chief offered a bold statement to back the campaign.

    He said,

    “TheGayUK is firmly committed to supporting the rights of gay, bisexual men who want to donate blood. Refusing blood from gay men, at a time where blood stocks are at crisis point, is not only deeply offensive, but also sends a damaging message that gay and bisexual men are poisonous, damaged and are not equal both societally and legally.”

    Also supporting the campaign, the GMFA’s Chief Executive, Matthew Hodson said,

    “We need a sensible policy on blood donations, which can ensure a safe supply for much needed transfusions, without risk or prejudice.”

    As it stands, the law in the UK bans gay and bisexual men from donating blood if they have had sex with another man within 12-months.

  • This Man Is Taking Blood Discrimination To The High Court

    Tomás Heneghan is taking the Irish Blood Transfusion Service to court because he believes they are discriminating against him and gay men.

    The Irish student is taking the IBTS to the high court after they “permanently deferred” him despite being tested negative for any diseases or viruses.

    Mr Heneghan, 23, who had been donating blood since he was eighteen, honestly disclosed the fact that he had slept with a man which is when the IBTS “deferred him”, which effectively acts as a ban on donating blood. The IBTS enforces a lifetime ban on any man who has had anal or oral sex with another man.

    Mr Heneghan considers giving blood a “civic responsibility” his counsel said.

    The European Convention on Human Rights prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. However, there is a provision for discriminating if it is reasonable and proportionate. Mr Heneghan is arguing that each individual must have an inquiry with regard to whether they can donate to ensure that a blanket ban on gay men giving blood is not discriminatory.

    The Irish Times reports that Mr Justice Seamus Noonan is satisfied that this is an appropriate case against the IBTS, the Minister of Health and the State.

  • Welsh Lib Dems Call For End To Gay Blood Ban

    Marking National Blood Week, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have called on the Welsh Government to work with the UK Government to end the ban on gay and bisexual men giving blood.

    Currently, UK Government guidelines prevent gay and bisexual men from donating blood if they have had sex with another male within the preceding twelve months. Proponents of the ban argue that gay and bisexual men are more likely than any other group to contract HIV, but figures for 2012 show that more people contract HIV through heterosexual sex than homosexual sex.

    Welsh Lib Dem AM Peter Black raised the issue in the Welsh Assembly earlier today. The Welsh Minister for Government Business agreed to ask the Minister for Health and Social Services to look at the matter further.

    Peter Black AM, the Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Equalities Minister, said,

    “National Blood Week has brought to our attention that the blood service needs 204,000 extra donors to meet demand. Given this huge demand for blood donors, I completely fail to understand why the ban on men who have sex with men giving blood is still in place.

    “This ban not only turns away thousands of willing and healthy potential donors, but it also serves to reinforce negative stereotypes about gay and bisexual men. Straight people get HIV too, and all donated blood is tested for HIV and other diseases before being transfused for precisely that reason.

    “The sooner this unfair and discriminatory ban is lifted, the sooner our blood services can benefit from a greater supply of donated blood and more lives can be saved.”

  • Want To Give Up Blood In The US? Give Up Gay Sex

    If you are gay, then the US’s powerful Food & Drug Administration still does not want your blood.

    That is unless you can prove you have been celibate for a whole year. After years of pressure to reform the ban, the FDA announced plans in December 2014 to ease the rules slightly and officials issued a formal recommendation on Tuesday which effectively still stops gay men from donating blood.

    The FDA has banned blood donations from men who have had sex with another man anytime since 1977, a rule approved more than three decades ago during the AIDS epidemic. However, as blood screening and HIV testing have made advances, the policy has been criticised as unscientific and discriminatory by some medical organisations, Congressional Democrats, and advocacy groups.

    “The FDA may have had good intentions behind this policy, but asking gay and bisexual men to be celibate for a year before donating blood is in practice still a lifetime ban,” said a statement issued by Kelsey Louie, the CEO of LGBT health advocacy group Gay Men’s Health Crisis. “By contrast, the new policy does not require heterosexuals to be celibate for one year in order to donate blood, even if their sexual behaviour places them at high risk for HIV.”

    However the out gay US ambassador to Spain may be banned from donating blood at home in the United States but he appeared eager to post a photo of himself donating blood in Spain, where the rules are different. Smiling and giving a thumbs up, James Costos appears in a photo on his Instagram account wearing a tourniquet and giving blood along with a glowing message to his followers. “I joined Team U.S. Embassy Madrid donating blood. Please join us, it feels good to give, trust me!” he wrote. The Instagram account belongs to Costos and his partner, Michael S. Smith, an interior designer who have been together for 15 years.

    In Spain, however, being gay does not disqualify potential blood donors. The donors are screened based on the individual’s risk factors, such as how recently they became intimate with a new partner and other behaviors that could raise chances of exposure to HIV.

  • Green Party Calls For The End To Blood Discrimination

    As the law stands in many parts of the UK, gay and bisexual men and MSMs (men who have sex with men) are forbidden from donating blood if they’ve been in a sexual relationship within the last 12 months.

    Green councillors on Brighton & Hove City Council are calling for an end to the bar against gay and bisexual men donating blood within 12 months of sexual activity.

    In 2011 a lifetime ban on donating blood by gay and bisexual men was lifted in most of the UK (except Northern Ireland); however any man who has had sex with another man within the last year is not permitted to donate blood.

    To coincide with World Blood Donor Day (14th June), Green councillors announced they were tabling a motion at the next city council meeting (17th July) urging the Government to change the rules.

    The time it takes for tests to show whether someone is infected with HIV and most other serious blood-borne infections is now three months and for Hepatitis C is six months so infection is detectable much earlier than 12 months.

    Green Councillor Alexandra Phillips, proposer of the motion, said: “We welcome the 2011 change lifting the lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood but it doesn’t go far enough to end discrimination and help the supply of safe blood.

    ‘The current rules are still discriminatory and are not backed by logical analysis of risk. Good science would support a six month window before donating blood after a possible risk, for all donors, on the basis that tests for HIV and Hepatitis C can detect infection within that time. The health service desperately needs safe blood donations, but this discrimination bars perfectly healthy men from helping to save lives.

    ‘It is possible to have a safe donor system based on the prevention of harm yet which does not discriminate. Anyone wanting to donate blood should be asked the same basic questions irrespective of their sexual orientation. It is unethical to prevent a whole group of healthy people from donating blood when a blood donation might save a life.

    ‘”Now the council has responsibility for public health, we hope this motion will help reassure gay and bisexual men in our city that the council is set against such a discriminatory health policy and that the government should act.’

    Councillor Mike Jones, who is an NHS sexual health adviser and is seconding the motion, said: ‘It’s absolutely crucial that blood supplies are safe and there should be proper measures in place to deal with risky individuals – but these rules mean in practice the vast majority of healthy gay and bisexual men are prevented from donating blood.

    ‘The result is we cut the supply of safe blood to the NHS while high-risk heterosexual donors remain free to donate. The blood of a healthy gay man who is in a monogamous relationship and who has only had oral sex will not be used whereas a heterosexual man who has had multiple opposite-sex partners and who refuses to take safe sex precautions will not usually be questioned about his behaviour or have his blood excluded.’

    Mike added: ‘Given that only around 5% of healthy people actually donate blood, rather than discriminating against large sections of the population, it would be far better and fairer to treat donors on a case-by-case basis using precise questions so that those gay and bisexual men who are willing to give blood would answer questions that accurately identify their degree of risk, so we aren’t turning away people who could be saving lives.’

    The Department of Health’s Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissue and Organs partly justifies the ban on the higher incidence of Hepatitis B in gay and bisexual men than the rest of the population since this infection could remain undetectable for several months under current testing. However advocates of a non-discriminatory approach say this could be addressed by a targeted Hepatitis B vaccination programme among gay and bisexual men.

    Green councillors say health authorities should implement a ‘Safe Blood’ education campaign targeted at the men who have sex with men to ensure that no one donates blood if they are at risk of HIV and other blood-borne infections arising from unsafe sexual activity. This should be backed by a health promotion campaign for Hepatitis B vaccination within the gay and bisexual community.