Blood Services’ ban is just bad policy

Blatantly outdated discrimination continues to pervade our health administration system, and this is no more apparent than with policies on blood donation in men who have sex with men (MSM). In 2002, Canadian Blood Services sued Kyle Freeman for having lied on the blood donor questionnaire to avoid the ban that prevents MSMs from donating blood; Freeman countersued, claiming the ban is discriminatory and violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Canadian court’s decision is expected sometime in the near future.

The Canadian policy has been in effect since 1983 and is intended to curb the spread of HIV infections contracted from blood transfusions. Canadian Blood Services refuses to accept a donation from any male who has had sex with another male before 1977. In early June, a U.S. committee reached the decision to keep a similar ban in place.

The reason given for the ban is that all MSMs are high risk of having the virus, regardless of lifestyle and frequent STD testing, and that in order to eliminate all chance of HIV infection, all MSMs must be prohibited from donating blood. While demographically MSMs represent roughly half of the people infected with HIV in Canada, we should not be discriminating based on sexual orientation, but instead on the high-risk behaviour of individuals.

Canadian Blood Services allows individuals who have paid for sex, or who have used cocaine, to donate blood after a 12-month wait. Straight men and women who have had a sexual encounter with someone of the opposite sex whose sexual history they’re unsure of are allowed to donate after a mere six-month wait.

These strict AIDS prevention policies will allow a seasoned crack addict who has had unprotected sex to donate their blood after a year of being clean. An adventurous university student can donate six months after a grueling 17-person orgy, provided they’re moderately sure none of the men involved had sex with each other. Yet MSMs who practice safe sex and get tested for HIV regularly, or who are in long-term monogamous relationships, are forbidden from ever donating blood. Even those with no risk of contracting any diseases are exempt from donating.

Despite Canada’s preoccupation with keeping high-risk individuals from donating, MSMs are the only demographic systematically eliminated based on a negative stereotype, rather than actual behaviour or unsafe medical practices. With such policies in place, it’s not surprising that gay men deal with the implication they live a deviant, disease-ridden lifestyle of sexual meetings with strangers.

As a recent article in the Canadian Medical Associatation Journal indicates, the progression of technology in this decade makes a false negative HIV test virtually impossible. HIV testing has come a long way since the ‘80s; while previous practices required the virus to be present in the body for at least six months before detection, it’s now possible to detect the virus after as little as two weeks. Combined with the frequency of testing for STDs many men in the queer community receive on a regular basis, and a suitable waiting period after unsafe encounters, it only makes sense for a new policy to be implemented that allows MSMs to donate with the same restrictions as heterosexuals. Risk of HIV infections among straight people is just as high as for MSMs. The spread of sexually transmitted diseases is highest among young, sexually-active heterosexuals who lack information about proper use of protection and STI prevention. In that case, if the issue is preventing HIV infection risk, blood donation restrictions on heterosexuals should be equal to those of the MSM population.

Canada could learn something from other countries with more tolerant policies. Australia, Japan, and Sweden have a one-year deferral period for MSMs with multiple partners, similar to Canada’s policies for straight men and women who exhibit behaviour with a great risk of contracting HIV. MSM men in monogamous relationships, or who haven’t recently been sexually active, deserve to be included in the low-risk category for HIV.

Ron Vezina, the director of media relations at Canadian Blood Services, has stated that he sees no reason to allow donations from “high risk” men, since there hasn’t been a recent blood shortage in Canada. But the issue of preventing MSMs from donating blood isn’t a gimmick to prevent a surplus of blood donations. It’s an obsolete, unfair policy that needs to be eliminated. Advances in medical science have essentially eliminated the risk of HIV contaminating the blood supply and common human decency shouldn’t allow such regulations to remain in existence.