Issue 154

Donation not discrimination

12th March 2007

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans) societies across the UK have joined together in a national campaign to attempt to change the National Blood Service policy which currently bans men who have had any kind of sex with a man from donating blood for life.

The reason for this is because gay and bisexual men are considered a high risk group for infecting blood supplies.

However, it doesn't matter if a gay or bi man has constantly practised safe sex and always used a condom: they are still refused if they try to donate blood.

Strangely, a woman who has had sex with a bi or gay man is only 'deferred' from giving blood for six months. With the emergence of HIV this blanket ban was introduced, but LGBT believe that this is no longer an appropriate stance to take. They say that "We believe in a system where individual risk is assessed and not the risk of a whole group."

The complete blanket ban has led to reports that some gay and bisexual men have simply not declared themselves and given blood anyway, a problem which LGBT wants to prevent by rethinking the policy.

LGBT accepts that there is proportionately a higher risk of HIV infection in the gay and bisexual community, but also argue that "not all LGBT people are the same", and that the safety of blood is of utmost importance. The European blood directive states that people who are high risk must not give blood. However, although in the UK all gay and bisexual men are considered high risk, in other European countries they are not, creating a system which makes the UK look discriminatory.

Originally, there was a risky time between actual infection and detection of infection which caused the problem of blood transfusion infection, but advanced methods of testing now available are helping to reduce any 'window period.' The risk of contamination is, therefore, lower than ever before and many gay and bisexual men would like to donate blood to help with dwindling stocks.

LGBT is urging the UK blood donation service to rethink its policy, and take individual's lifestyles into consideration, rather than imposing a blanket ban which discriminates against those in the gay community who practice safe sex. There is no policy against straight people who are promiscuous or have unsafe sex.

Claire Anderson, NUS LGBT Officer, at a London protest in November commented that they were committed to "...encouraging our friends to donate in our place and talking to donors to raise awareness of the policy."

She continued: "Most people we have spoken to are really surprised that this kind of ban is still in place. We are calling for equal treatment for donors regardless of sexuality."

The LGBT campaign has the support of the NUS and also the Liberal Democrats. Their national day of action was in November, seeing students up and down the country encouraging friends, fellow students and passers-by to donate blood in place of the thousands of gay and bisexual men who can't. The Swansea group were suprised and pleased by how much support was shown by their fellow students.

LGBT want to discourage those in their community from breaking the existing rules by not admitting their sexual status, wanting them instead to join with them in lobbying the blood service to rewrite their policy to bring it more in line with that in other countries.

They also want to encourage as many people who can donate blood to do so, because some of the student community cannot at present - although they're hoping to change that soon of course!

You can find out more from Swansea University's LGBT group, who will be all around campus raising awareness, and you can show your support for the campaign by giving blood if you can and joining 'Donation not Discrimination' on Facebook.

Charlie Duff