What is a needle prick in the vein if it could help save a life? Probably nothing for students who give blood and don’t think twice. However, some students walk past the blood donation sign-up table outside of Harris slightly uncomfortable and ashamed. It’s not that they don’t want to give blood or that their Sunday sundae takes priority, it’s because these students cannot donate blood due to their sexuality.
Since 1983, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has upheld a policy that prevents any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 (MSM) from donating blood. This policy is centered around the idea that this population has a high HIV prevalence, meaning infection in a high percentage in a specific population. According to the American Red Cross, the HIV prevalence in MSM since 1977 is 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first-time blood donors and 8000 times higher than repeat blood donors.
Gay rights activists argue that this policy is outdated and discriminates against men who have sex with other men, since the FDA does not prevent other at-risk populations from donating blood, such as heterosexuals who have multiple partners.
“It’s an incredibly outdated and insensitive policy that singles out one community as invalid, whether or not they have AIDS. Not all people with AIDS are gay, nor do all gay people have AIDS,” commented John Sherman ‘11, an out gay student.
At the SGA blood drive on September 14 and 15, SGA president Nathan Cornell ’11 said SGA does “support the Red Cross’ efforts in supplying ailing patients with the blood that they need to survive,” but does not condone the FDA policy.
According to the FDA’s website, one reason for preventing MSM individuals from donating blood is the difficulty of detecting the HIV infection during the “window period.” The “window period” is the time between being infected with HIV and the ability of an HIV test to detect HIV in an infected person.
The FDA argues that their policy “reduces the likelihood that a person would unknowingly donate blood during the ‘window period’ of infection. This is important because the rate of new infections in MSM is higher than in the general population and current blood donors.” Also, the FDA states that men who have had sex with other men account for the largest single group of blood donors who are found to be HIV positive by blood donor testing.
However, current research shows that the HIV and AIDS prevalence is not only from the MSM population. There are rising rates of infection in young heterosexual women, and especially in young heterosexuals with multiple partners.
“I think everyone’s blood should be tested before being a donor, not just men who have sex with other men,” said Marisa Trevino ’13, the co-chair of Conn Queer and Questioning (CQ2). Trevino believes in the importance of blood drives despite the exclusion of gay men, but made clear that “if they’re clean, everyone should be able to give blood.”
To show that SGA cares about Conn students who are affected by the FDA’s policy, its members asked students to sign a petition against the policy when they signed up to give blood last week, as they have for the past several years.
Says Cornell, “It is my hope that as the gay rights movement continues to grow and with today’s more accurate HIV testing, it is only a matter of time before the Red Cross no longer excludes gay men [from donating blood].”
For more detailed information about the FDA’s MSM policy, visit their website at www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/default.htm.
