I don’t have HIV or AIDS. If you don’t believe me, test the blood I want to donate, which you do to all donated blood anyway, I’d assume. I committed the unthinkable crime of choosing a bisexual partner, and now my blood is just as filthy and contaminated as his. How is this fair to the people who will die because there isn’t enough blood for a transfusion? Why is it that a promiscuous, 100% hetero person—if there is such a thing—who doesn’t use condoms can give blood, and I can’t? —Discrimination Kills
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2011.
I’ve got O neg blood.
Its supposedly desirable.
They want it & I want to be paid for my time & the expense of getting to where they’re collecting.
so we’re presently at an impasse
OP, who cares if they don’t want your blood. Keep it for yourself. It’s not like they’re paying people for it….like they should.
They don’t want my blood either, I got yellow jaundice as a child, do I complain? It’s not like I made a life-style choice.
OP: the long ass questionaire usually weeds out the promiscuous heteros.
I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but after the tainted blood scandal in the 80s and 90s, I don’t blame CBS one bit for being overly cautious. Sure your blood is probably perfectly fine, but I’m sure CBS would rather have you offended than have to pay millions in compensation if you actually ARE infected.
And HIV takes a while to show up in your bloodstream. You COULD be infected and not have a positive result. You’re now in a high risk group and they’re not willing to take those chances.
But hay, I can’t donate either! Apparently I’ll get kill’d if I do. It’s a bummer because I have o neg, but eh, it is what it is.
Back in the 80s a lot of people were infected with HIV through blood transfusions. My aunt actually had HIV because of a blood transfusion she received when she gave birth to her second son in the 80s. Many people my age (born in the 80s) had to go through the awful experience of waiting to find out if their mother had HIV or not because she had a blood transfusion during their birth. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for my young mother, sitting in the waiting area wondering if she had a deadly disease that could leave her small children motherless. Thank god my mother’s test came out negative. But my cousin, he was VERY close to his mother, and blames himself for his mother’s illness and I’m pretty sure it contributed to his depression after it killed her in the 90s. He committed suicide last year. This is just my personal experience with the issue.
But it wasn’t just women giving birth, anyone who had a lifesaving blood transfusion for any reason during the HIV scare was called back years later once tests had been developed to find out whether or not they were infected.
Obviously there was a big push to research the disease. Once we found out how the disease was transmitted (sexually and via blood) strict guidelines were put into place for blood transfusions, and condom usage was vigorously encouraged. The FDA pinpointed groups of high risk individuals and banned them from donating blood completely as we still knew little about the disease, and methods to test blood for it were still only in development. Prostitutes, injection drug users, and gay men were all banned from giving blood. The high risk categories were initially based on medical statistics from the 80s, and statistics showed that all three of those groups were at a much higher risk for having HIV.
In the case of gay men in particular, the higher statistics have to do with the fact that HIV transmission is much higher for anal sex than it is for vaginal sex. It has to do with the differences in the anatomy and nature of the colon vs the vagina.
The fact is that even the newer improved tests are still not 100% accurate at detecting HIV in blood. So the ban on prostitutes, injection drug users, and gay men persists. The statistics still support this, most likely because it’s only been a few short decades since the initial scare. I wouldn’t even call it a scare among the gay community, it hit them the hardest and a lot of gay men died tragically.
The ban on gay men, prostitutes, and drug users is not what’s causing the blood shortage as these people only represent a small minority of the population. The blood shortage is caused by the remaining people who can donate, not bothering to. So kudos to you OP, for trying to do what a lot of people can do, but don’t.
But yes there are still risks with the remaining population that is allowed to donate. Promiscuous straight people can and do get HIV. The lengthy questionnaire is designed to weed them out, and if it fails than the blood testing will usually catch the infected blood before it’s injected into someone else.
It’s a system designed to keep people safe from being injected with a disease and it’s not perfect but it’s as perfect as we can get it with our current technologies.
Some people might feel discriminated against and that’s unfortunate but until we come up with a blood test that detects HIV 100% of the time, I don’t think it’s changing. Hurt feelings is not a good enough reason to even slightly increase the risk of people (People as in gay and straight men, women, and children) getting HIV from blood transfusions. Even if the risk were to increase by only a few percent, the sheer number of blood transfusions that are given every day can quickly turn that few percent into thousands of infected people.
If the science and statistics ever shows conclusively that lifting the ban on gay men would not increase the risk of this happening, then I would fully support the ban being lifted. But I have yet to see the evidence supporting this or any hard evidence refuting the existing evidence given for the ban.
I believe the FDA when they deny that the ban is a result of discrimination against gay people. In my experience, people who discriminate against gay men also discriminate against the entire LGBT community. If the claims of discrimination were true, I would expect to see a similar ban on blood donation for lesbians as well. But this isn’t the case.
The ban on gay men from giving blood doesn’t cause homophobic bullying or drive gay teens to commit suicide, nor does it deny gay people the right to marry and adopt, or cause gay people to be locked up in prisons, tortured, and executed for the “crime” of being gay… that still happens in some countries. There are many issues that are much more deserving of your time.
Wow Snoop, I’m really sorry for all that’s happened to your family as a result of tainted blood. What a shame.
I have attempted to donate blood a few times. Once I was with a new partner and couldn’t donate, once I had low iron and couldn’t donate, and twice I attempted to donate but passed out (my veins are finicky, as soon as the needle is moved in my arm I turn as white as a ghost and can’t see). My dad is a long-time blood donor, and he inspired me to donate. So far, the experience hasn’t been wonderful for me.
I think that it’s possible they could re-evaluate the questionnaire and catch those who have a higher risk of HIV. I have gay friends who lie so they can donate, and I think that in itself is scary. I would much rather see gay people go through the same processes as everyone else, because I feel like the questionnaire could do a better job of weeding out the risky people without making people feel like they need to lie or they are being discriminated against.
I’m really sorry to hear about what happened to your family, snoop. That was the point of my post: the lives of others are way more important than someone being offended or getting their feelings hurt.
i appreciate everyone who donates, i can’t and need platelets sometimes
I’ve tried once and (more or less) successfully donated once. The first time I tried I hadn’t had enough fluids that day so they only managed to get about 2/3 of a pint out of me. Just a couple weeks ago I was able to donate the full pint, but afterwards I was a wreck (as I’ve explained over on the love side). As a result, I’ve been advised not to try and donate again. 🙁
I refuse to give blood, for the exact reason stated in this bitch. Fuck you Canadian Blood Services.
Well, thank goodness, PG that there are people without the asshole mindset like more-on and sebastard. I hope if you two or someone you love are ever in an accident or ever have cancer or require a transfusion for whatever reason, there’s no blood left for transfusion because someone didn’t donate because they didn’t get paid to do it. Though you’re both so stupid you probably wouldn’t get that point anyway. More-on isn’t that bright, and we all know sebastard’s logical reasoning skills are non-existent.
dartmouthy: people who’ve just had piercings and tattoos can’t donate too because they are at high risk for infection if the equipment isn’t properly sterilized and hay sometimes shit happens. It’s not a case of discrimniation — it’s a case of keeping the blood supply safe for everyone. Would you really feel comfortable with YOUR family or yourself being at risk for HIV just because they let someone donate so they wouldn’t become offended? I mean, do you really think someone’s feelings are more important than whether or not you or someone in your family gets a deadly infectious disease?
It’s not just gay men who are banned. There’s a wholeeee questionaire that has to be answered and it’s suprising how many people CAN’T donate for various reasons that don’t include putting their own life in jeopardy. It’s not just gay men who are being targeted.
To be honest I’ve never even tried to donate blood PK, from what I’ve read in the media about this whole issue. I don’t feel it is worth all of the work for, what in the end, would probably be a big NO to me from CBS.
I understand the logic, and for some reason reading what you’ve written here is a billion times more eloquent than anything CBS has ever published, or admitted to.
I understand HIV isn’t detected 100% of the time – but by that logic, NO BLOOD would be safe. From Straight people, from lesbians, or from your local pastor. So it’s all BS in my opinion. It’s too bad – if it weren’t so politicized I’d probably be willing to take a few hours out of my day to help someone I’ll never know. Not a chance now.
i can see this being valid, only if you are a ginger. other than that, buck the fuck up. and tell them all to get fucked, but in person, not on here.
That’s it pettykitty stay true to form, name callings all you know you pathetic thing.
next you’ll go on & tell us that everyone works there for free, & no one gets paid.
Yet without blood….they’re out of business.
So donors especially sought after ‘types’ should be compensated IMO. Afterall there’s a persons time, the cost to get there & return home etc. Wanting to get a piece of the pie is what any government agency would do…fuck, is exactly what they all do to us, before they “provide” ANYTHING.
I’m just a fast learner, & not suckered by the Gov BS like you are.
If everyone stopped giving…they’d start paying.
do they pay for semen in canada? n/k
painy, i wish, i got 2 barrels and a bucketful here behind the coach,yuk yuk.
Having studied this just recently I can say that the stats when it comes to risk in gay male couples vs. heterosexual couples are staggering.
It isn’t fair but the only thing I can say is that it is what it is.
Many people cannot donate for various reasons.
The sexual orientation, I believe is not a choice however the risk that comes along with it cannot be avoided. Sad, but true.
” That’s it pettykitty stay true to form, name callings all you know you pathetic thing.”
LOL you just proved my point right there, More-on. Can’t understand anything that’s not shown to him in a picture book.
You rode the short bus to school, didn’t you? 🙁
Also: Donk — exactly. It’s NOT discrimination by any means: it’s CBS’s way of a) doing all they can to make sure the blood supply is safe and b) avoiding any huge ass lawsuits.
I *can* understand why they don’t want gay men to donate, despite what my Bitch says. But I’m not a gay man; I’m the girlfriend of a guy who has only ever used condoms, and who has been tested for HIV at least three times over two years after his last boyfriend. That’s the only thing stopping me from being able to donate, and it kills me that I can’t help.
People who don’t know those facts about me think that I’m just in the group of those who can donate but won’t. But I want to so badly.
I’d love to donate too, DK. I have O-neg so I know it’s important for me to donate, but it’s just not physically safe for me to do so.
I completely understand what you’re saying, and it sucks that you want to but can’t. It makes me so angry when people like More-on and Sebastard go on about how they want to be paid for their time, especially when More-on has o neg blood.
Unfortunately, the people who can donate, often do not. Either they don’t think of it, don’t think it’s worth their time, or they’re “scared” of needles (oh boo fucking hoo).
And then you’ve got those like our little nerd boy who donated twice and ended up hypoglycemic afterwards, but then wrote a love about the nurses who helped him afterwards! That’s why we love ya, ‘gasmatron!
The thing is, though, DK, is that, while you may not be at risk, so much, CBS can’t take the chance. It comes down to safety of the entire population at whatever cost versus offending someone. I don’t know one gay man with HIV or AIDS, and I know all my gay friends are SUPER safe about sex and aren’t promiscious, and if any one of them wanted to give me their blood, I’d be happy to take it (or an organ — my gay husband told me he couldn’t donate organs because he was gay…. not sure about that, but if it’s true I’d take a kidney in a heartbeat if I needed one and he offered)…. but, statistically, gay men are at a higher risk of transmission and of becoming infected. It’s sad, but it’s true.
I honestly don’t think it’s an attempt to discriminate — it’s an attempt to keep the blood supply clean.