Farida Iqbal
Under Australian Red Cross regulations, men who have had sex with men in the past 12 months are prohibited from donating blood.
A debate around the ban erupted in April 2005 when Tasmanian Michael Cain was prevented from giving blood after confirming he had male-to-male sex in the past 12 months (see <http://www.ssonet.com.au>). "I felt dirty. I felt angry and useless as well", Cain told the Sydney Star Observer.
Cain has taken a complaint to the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commission and has the support of the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group. Cain and the TGLRG argue that the blood ban is discriminatory and unnecessary — blood donors should be assessed according to whether they practice safe sex, rather than according to the gender of their sexual partners.
The AIDS Council of NSW defended the ban in the queer media, arguing that men who have recently had sex with men are at greater risk of sexually transmitted infection and consequently pose a greater threat to the blood supply. "Some gay men are not entirely frank about their sexual history, and that is the basis on which the Red Cross makes assessments about risks and we support those assessments at this point in time", ACON representative Adrian Lovney told the Sydney Star Observer.
Australian Red Cross regulations also prohibit sex workers from donating blood, despite their lower rates of HIV than in the general population.
A parallel controversy has erupted in South Africa. On January 13, 2005, the National Blood Service ruled that it would no longer accept donations from gay men. South Africa's largest gay and lesbian organisation, the Triangle Project, has condemned the ban (see <http://www.triangle.org.za>) and the activist group Gay and Lesbian Alliance has claimed that 120 of its gay male members deliberately lied about their sexual history and donated blood in protest.
In sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is, for the most part, transmitted through unsafe heterosexual sex, rather than through male-to-male sex.
From Green Left Weekly, March 8, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.