Donate Blood Now! Oh, eh, except if you're gay

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday February 14, 2002 11:23 by rowan

HIV rates among gays now equals that of straight women, yet Irish Blood bank specifically excludes gay men from donating, despite blood shortages.

from http://www.gcn.ie

Equality Authority questions Blood Bank over Gay Blood Ban-Tues 29th Jan
The Equality Authority has written to the Chief Executive of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, Mr Martin Hynes, regarding its policy of excluding gay men from donating blood, GCN can reveal. The policy excluding men who have sex with men from giving blood is contained in a leaflet being given to members of the public at the country's blood donor clinics.

The leaflet states that, 'You should never give blood if you are a male who has ever had sex with another male, even 'safe sex' using a condom.' "We are aware of this issue and are concerned about it," said Brian Merriman, the Equality Authority's Director of Communications. "We have written to the CEO of the bloodbank and are awaiting a response." When the public responded to the Blood Bank's call for blood donors to come forward following its advice to hospitals to postpone routine surgery due to an acute shortage of blood in early January, GCN received several phone calls from readers regarding the policy.

A lesbian named Veronica, who had never given blood before and was responding to the blood bank's call for donors, told GCN she was "shocked" when she found out about the policy upon donating blood at the new donor clinic in Dublin and was handed the leaflet on donor eligibility. Veronica contacted the Equality Authority immediately as, she said, "I was shocked that such a large public body could be so blatant in its discrimination." She said she could not understand the rationale behind it because "the latest HIV figures reveal that the highest rise in infected numbers is now among heterosexual females". According to Veronica, the Equality Authority told her that this policy was discriminatory, but in order for them to do anything about it that it would need to be reported to them by a man who felt discriminated against as a result of it.

The IBTS policy was first highlighted in 1997 when Duane Farrell, then LGB Rights Officer for the Union of Students in Ireland, raised the issue. The then BTSB said it would seek to meet with the LGB community to attempt to achieve a consensus. "I would love to address the sensitivities around this," said Dr William Murphy, the BTSB's Medical Director. Contacted then by GCN in relation to the story, Dr Murphy said, "At the moment, the number of new cases of HIV and Hepatitis B is considerably higher in the gay male community than it is in the straight community. The policy is based on current epidemiology and when that changes we will have to change as well. Then we will be more than happy to take that exclusion away." HIV statistics from the Department of Health for January to June 2000 reveal that the number of new cases of HIV infection among gays - 32 cases - is now exactly equal to the number of new cases among heterosexual women.