With the opening of the new blood clinic location comes the campaign in search of people to donate. I would absolutely without a question gladly, willingly and often donate if only they would accept my blood. But, alas… I’m gay. For some reason, that makes my blood akin to pure arsenic (despite being 100% healthy). Considering they test every donor’s blood for possible infections and diseases before allowing that blood to be used for transfusion… why can I not donate? It’s just absolutely wrong and deplorable. I’m capable of saving lives with my blood, but, despite age old discrimination, prejudice and ignorance, I can’t. I guess I’m still just a second class citizen after all. —Bleeding Heart
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.
they have a lot of restrictions but this one is sofa king stupid
They wouldn’t take my blood either because I was being looked at for abnormal cells. The thing is, if you didn’t tell them you were gay and I didn’t tell them I was waiting for lab results, our blood would be passed or declined based on the screening test itself. So, yes, it does appear that the decision is based on ‘discrimination, prejudice and ignorance’.
Is this policy? or was it a particular person who declined you?
this is policy kimmy, they ask very specific questions. the only one in the family who can give blood is the boy
With all due respect OP, and you probably know all this anyway, but I think the Canadian Blood Service is still recovering from the disaster of the 1980s when large quantities of their stock were contaminated with the AIDS virus and Hepatitis C, which resulted in the deaths of large numbers of hemophiliacs and other users of blood products.
The findings of the Krever Inquiry uncovered widespread incompetence and systemic failures to ensure the safety of the blood supply and led to a complete restructuring of how blood products are collected and dispersed in this country.
After the infection of almost forty thousand blood recipients, many of them now dead, and the billions of dollars in law suits and compensation claims, can you really blame them for being a little gun shy?
Yaou shouldn’t have told them you let the animals lick your face and plates = )
i knew you would that ce…they are gun shy
do
Commandante: How ignorantly outrageous of you. Gay is NOT synonymous with AIDS. There are COUNTLESS numbers of perfectly healthy gay people that would be willing to give blood. And like the OP said, they screen for any infections and diseases anyhow.. so why not just let people donate if they wanna donate.
I don’t believe that El Jefe was defending the action; simply stating why an organization’s ponderous over-reaction came to be.
yea methinks it something to do with liability … peeps are a little cautious these days yea know
I agree with the OP 100%, with the technology that is available today to test blood, it shouldn’t matter whether the person is gay or not. There are plenty of straight people who lead very risky lifestyles who would be considered eligible for donation by the Canadian Blood Services. The tests they run help make sure the blood of those people is not used if it is infected with a disease. Why can’t it be the same for gays?
I’m pretty sure they don’t ask if someone is into ‘scat’ before they take a person’s blood. And, I think it would be preferable to receive clean ‘gay’ blood as oppose to the blood of a poopeater.
okay, okay, a bit over the top, but anyway… = p
Ivan: oh, I see. I forgot that medical science and testing processes haven’t advanced at all within the last 30 years. Much like people’s very narrow minds I guess.
I have to agree, OP.
With all the technology available now, and with CBS testing every single donation they receive, why shouldn’t every single person out there who wants to donate be able to donate?
Your argument is with Canadian Blood Services, not with Commander Bob nor I. So again, for simplicity’s sake, I believe his argument was neither a defence of their stance, nor an approval of their apparent inability to implement those wonderful testing processes that have appeared in the last 30 years (Question – can a pinprick blood test detect HIV?), nor support for an organization which depends on public contribution yet excludes a segment of that self same public from providing what they need. All clear?
So true OP, but if they don’t want our healthy blood and organs, let them be the ones to say “Sorry, we don’t have a _______ for your transplant because we won’t accept health organs for health LGBT persons. Enjoy your last few hours alive” to the patient.
How about Canada having ‘blood banks’ where healthy people can keep their donations for themselves? Or donate it to someone else.
Juswamsmi,
I didn’t say that gay was synonymous with AIDS. I was just trying to provide some historical context and a possible rationale for how the CBS conducts their business. I’ve seen this story covered in the media before and the implication frequently seems to be that gay men are being discriminated against for no good reason.
Blood donations undergo more testing these days than was the case in the 1980s and a lot of folks assume that with testing and technology there shouldn’t be a problem accepting donations from almost anyone. That may be the case, but as the Krever Inquiry discovered, many of the flawed decisions that were made under the old system were influenced by financial considerations, namely the high cost associated with testing EVERY blood donation for multiple contaminants and the fact that there was little money allocated at the time to do this.
It would have prevented a lot of tragedy if the Red Cross, which handled blood donations in the 1980s, had earlier adopted a policy which excluded donations from groups at high risk for AIDS, which would have meant gay men and which would likely have been interpreted at the time as anti-gay. Unfortunately this wasn’t done, for whatever reason.
Maybe it’s time for CBS to revisit their policy, and if more testing and technology will ensure that blood products remain of high quality regardless of the donor source, then by all means accept donations from everyone (as long as the government is willing to put our tax dollars into the system) but I think the history of this issue will likely affect policy for some time yet.
I guess I’m just tired of people beating up on CBS over this issue.
I hate the fact that I can’t donate. I have O negative blood and I always hear on the radio that they’re looking for Oneg. I completely understand why I can’t donate (it’s a health risk to me to donate), but it just sucks that perfectly healthy people who are not at serious risk if they DO donate are denied because of who they sleep with. There are LOTS of straight people with HIV and there are LOTS of straight promiscious people too.
And, if you’re female and you’ve been with a guy who’s been with a guy you’re disqualified too!
Sebastian says he’s not allowed to donate because he’s too masculine. The transfusion may turn people into pink coloured Incredible Hulk-type mutants.
Obviously no one is reading the news. CBS are in fact looking to get the rules changed so gays can donate blood and in fact gays can donate stem cells and bone marrow. Catch up on the news folks.
Read “And The Band Played on” .
d you want to get tainted blood o.p.? believe me, it can get real fucking scarey, to think you might have that shit running thru you. case in point, i was shot in neck years back, by drunk ex-wife,had to have some blood infused in me, then 4 months later, bang.
was told that there was a good chance that i had gotten some h.i.v. infected blood. they had just started screeening at the time. 10 fucking years of my life, fucking near gone, as i went for tests every 3 fucking months back then. was i scared, no, but boy was i pissed. you take your chances even today. that’s why there is so much protocol involved.
i saw the movie matthew
Get over yourself.
The list of disallowed donors is long.
If you ate beef in Britain round about the time of mad cow disease you are disqualified.
It is called risk avoidance.
“I would absolutely without a question gladly, willingly and often donate if only they would accept my blood.” Yeah Joe, ma can’t donate cause she lived in Britain during the mad cow debacle.
“I’m pretty sure they don’t ask if someone is into ‘scat’ before they take a person’s blood.” I’d like to believe that that isn’t real. Nope, doesn’t exist.
not that my blood’s anything special….
common and all, I haven’t been able to give blood for years because of tattoo’s.
Which, given all the tests they do prior, makes about as little sense….
How long is the restriction after tattoos, zed? I think it’s a year after piercings?
What I’m wondering is…how long does it take to detect HIV in a test? I could be wrong, but I *thought* it was at least three months from infection?
So technically, couldn’t someone donate blood, be recently infected, yet not have it come up when tested?
I’ve always wondered this…I’m not up on the specifics of testing, i just know I go once a year and get a round of tests as part of my annual physical *shrug*
They want my blood…they can damn well pay for it.
My time is V A L U A B L E
It costs M O N E Y to buy the gas to get me there.
Then there’s wear & tear on my vehicle.
How much will parking cost ?
You want my O-neg blood, I want some compensation.
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http ://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/BurVampire.jpg/260px-Burne-Jones-le-Vampire.jpg&imgrefurl=http://vampirebooks.blogspot.com/2009/10/vampire-and-vamp.html&usg=__yxqtL7SgcSnDbAQUbBETEsOHT24=&h=367&w=260&sz=33&hl=en&start=165&zoom=1&tbnid=S1orE7Cxj29elM:&tbnh=162&tbnw=126&ei=OhhMTY7bAZKCvgP0mpjPDw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfemale%2Bvampires%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1027%26bih%3D647%26tbs%3Disch:10,5402&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=551&vpy=80&dur=778&hovh=267&hovw=189&tx=99&ty=172&oei=zRdMTcTQBYT7lwezhpT4Dw&esq=2&page=11&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:165&biw=1027&bih=647
ignore that
Otay. It was a good effort, painey 🙂
6 months PK
with tattoos healing in about a week (1.5 for me because I have very un-pliable/slow-recovering epidermis) I always get that hankering before I’m eligible.
i love o negative mr. more it’s my favourite. i’m heading your way
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm…