Gay Blood is not Good Enough

A Tasmanian man is suing the Red Cross because his was denied the opportunity to give blood because he is an active gay man. The Australian Red Cross policy states that any man involved in male to male sexual contact within the preceding 12 months cannot give blood. The Tazmanian man is engaging his country's Human Rights Campaign to protest this highly discriminatory practice. This recent news item caused me to question the American Red Cross' stance on this very sensitive issue, and our national organization actually goes a step further by prohibiting donations from any man who has had sex with another man since 1977. This ban applies even if you have only had sex with a man one time since 1977. Now, the question I really have regarding this policy is: "Does the Red Cross actually think people answer the question truthfully". I wonder because I have answered the question falsely myself in the past, then I finally realized that if my blood was not good enough then I would simply not donate any longer. With testing readily available to detect HIV antibodies, and all of this testing already being performed on every single donation that is processed anyway, such policies are simply discriminatory against our community. I realize that there are some serious implications associated with maintaining the integrity of our nation's and the world's blood supply, but a discriminatory screening process that cannot possibly work properly in practice, and has already been outmoded by blood testing processes really is sending the wrong message.