Friday, February 26, 2010
Video
Gay students petition blood drive policy
Gay students who have been deferred from the blood drive made their voices heard at the Kansas Union.
Video
Speaking out about blood drive policies
Michael Turner, freshman from Manhattan and Queers and Allies activism coordinator, explains why he thinks the FDA should revise its policies barring men who have had sex with men from donating blood.
Video
Queers and Allies responds to blood drive policies
Monica Soto, senior from Turner and Queers and Allies public relations manager, explains why Queers and Allies is protesting the FDA's regulations prohibiting men who have had sex with men from donating blood.
For the first time at the University, Queers and Allies protested the Food and Drug Administration’s blood donation policy that men who have had sex with other men cannot donate blood.
Interesting blood facts
Less than 38 percent of the population is eligible to give blood.
One pint of blood can save up to three lives.
Every year five million patients in the U.S. need blood.
Adults have around 10 pints of blood in their bodies. One pint is given during a donation.
Only seven percent of people in the U.S. have the universal donor blood type, O negative.
— www.redcrossblood.org
Examples of other people who can't donate blood
Anyone who has ever used intravenous drugs (illegal IV drugs).
Anyone who has ever received clotting factor concentrates.
Anyone with a positive test for HIV (AIDS virus).
Men and women who have engaged in sex for money or drugs since 1977.
Anyone who has had hepatitis since his or her 11th birthday.
Anyone who has had babesiosis or Chagas disease.
Anyone who has taken Tegison for psoriasis.
Anyone who has risk factors for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) or who has an immediate family member with CJD.
Anyone who spent three months or more in the United Kingdom from 1980 through 1996.
Anyone who received a blood transfusion in the United Kingdom or France after 1980.
Anyone who has spent five years in Europe from 1980 to the present.
— www.aabb.org
Members of Queers and Allies tabled in the Kansas Union Thursday to raise awareness and collect signatures for a petition to send to the FDA.
Michael Turner, a freshman from Manhattan, helped organize the event. Turner said the group wanted to raise awareness about people who want to help save lives, but aren’t allowed to.
“We’re not protesting against the blood drive or the Red Cross at all,” Turner said. “We are totally in support of what they do. We think it’s great and we encourage people to donate.”
The FDA passed its first policy prohibiting any man who had had sex with another man after 1977 from donating blood in 1983 because of the HIV-AIDS scare. Turner said at that time people most commonly associated a high risk of HIV with homosexuals. Turner said some college campuses actually ban blood drives on campus because of the discriminatory practices.
In a letter to The University Daily Kansan, Scott Caswell, the American Red Cross regional CEO, said the FDA’s policy did not reflect the views of the Red Cross. He said the Red Cross was dedicated to fairness in donor selection regardless of beliefs, race, gender or sexual persuasion.
Caswell said in 2005 the Red Cross worked with AABB, formerly American Association of Blood Banks, and America’s Blood Centers to petition the FDA to review its policy. On May 23, 2007 the FDA reaffirmed its support of a lifetime deferral for men who have had sex with men.
Jill Burkoff, FDA Consumer Safety Officer, said there were several checkpoints to the blood donation process that ensured the blood supply was safe for all Americans.
“Please rest assured that this policy is not discriminatory.” Burkoff said. “It is risk-based.”
Burkoff said men who have had sex with men have an HIV prevalency rate 60 times higher than the general population and 800 times higher than a first time blood donor. She said the FDA’s policy was similar to many other country’s policies, including countries in the European Union.
“The FDA welcomes scientific and public input and we reevaluate our policies as new data becomes available,” Burkoff said.
She said the FDA was always open to new information, but the current scientific evidence did not support a change in the policy.
Monica Soto, a senior from Kansas City, Kan., helped table Thursday and said Queers and Allies had received mostly positive responses.
She said most of the negative feedback they had were comments on their Facebook event page due to confusion about their reasons for tabling.
She said there was confusion because people thought Queers and Allies was protesting the blood drive and the Red Cross.
“We’re not protesting the Red Cross,” Soto said. “We love that they’re saving lives by people donating blood.”
— Edited by Kirsten Hudson
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Comments
Queers and Allies protests blood donation policy
Political correctness is one thing, but "an HIV prevalency rate 60 times higher than the general population and 800 times higher than a first time blood donor" is a whole 'nother thing, period.
The scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that the FDA's current policy is correct. Neither the Red Cross, nor the gay activists, are able to refute that evidence. Queers and Allies are simply wrong on this one.
Queers and Allies protests blood donation policy
6,000% higher HIV prevalency rate than the general population? 80,000% higher HIV prevalency rate than first time blood donors? Those are astronomical figures that I can barely get my head around.
The FDA is absolutely right. Perhaps it's time to take a closer look at what's motivating the Red Cross to dismiss these frightening statistics.
Queers and Allies protests blood donation policy
The Red Cross dismisses these numbers because they are in the situation where they can save face with protesters while passing the blame to the FDA policy...or because they have abandoned medical science for political correctness. The numbers don't lie and the ban is common sense....just like the restrictions on travel to certain geographic regions. I doubt that all of the Queers and Allies would be lining up en masse each week to max out their blood donation contributions. More likely, the policy is a slow-moving target for a protest.
Queers and Allies protests blood donation policy
How can you say gays don't care about public health? They obviously want to give blood, TO HELP PEOPLE, this is why they care enough to protest a policy that does not allow them to help.
ALL blood is tested anyway.
A heterosexual can have sex with someone who is KNOWN to have AIDS, and is only banned for 1 year.
A gay man can have 1 partner who is KNOWN to not have AIDS and they are banned for life.
If you had a choice to get blood from one of these poeple, would it be the heterosexual who is known to have had intercourse with someone who is HIV positive?
I don't know about you, but I don't like the odds of that one.
Gay people do care about public health, but these laws prevent people from seeing that.
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