I can’t help but wonder how Monday’s poll results asking how many of us have donated blood will inevitably be skewed by the number of potential respondents who felt too ashamed to answer one way or another.
Some of us are unable to donate blood because we’ve been to the United Kingdom recently. Some of us are deemed ineligible to donate blood because we’ve recently been tatted up. Some are deemed unworthy to donate because they’ve used intravenous drugs within the past year. And then there are some who are turned away in shame from giving the gift of life for no other reason than for being gay.
And it’s for this that we should all be ashamed.
Since 1983, the Food and Drug Administration has not accepted blood donations from men who have sex with men or any woman who has had sex with a man who has had sex with a man — effectively placing an umbrella ban on all gay men from giving the gift we’re all told could “save three lives in 30 minutes.” Even with increased testing methods and a slew of congressional representatives led by Sen. John Kerry this summer pleading with the FDA to reverse the ban, the FDA has refused. The FDA has refused to acknowledge that I and the millions of other gay men who wish to donate blood should be able to save lives.
While this ban is not grounded in science or statistics, as the majority of new infections actually occur within the black community, it further dehumanizes a community so often persecuted.
While anyone who has sex for money can donate blood after a year of abstinence from that “high-risk” activity, a gay man in a committed, monogamous relationship will never be able to give blood, as that “high-risk activity” grants an instant rejection regardless of time frame. And that’s dehumanizing.
The American Red Cross has said the FDA’s ban on blood donations from gay men is “scientifically and medically unwarranted.” A LifeSouth official even said publicly in 2009 he would be “completely comfortable” if the FDA reversed its blatantly discriminatory policy.
This slap-in-the-face, ever-present homosexism should serve as a reference to all that we are not treated equally under the law. Discrimination, no matter how far we’ve come, is still pervasive and debilitating. And I’m ashamed for all of us.
Jared Misner is a student representative on UF’s LGBTQ Concerns Committee.
