A couple weeks ago I went to donate blood to a Pre-Health Club-hosted blood drive with The Blood Connection. While filling out the eligibility questionnaire, there were many slightly strange and specific restrictions to who could and could not donate blood, including living out of the country for five years and getting tattoos, but one that struck an off chord with me was that men who have had sexual intercourse with another man could not donate blood.
Taken aback, I researched to see if this was specific only to The Blood Connection. Yet, as I learned more, I discovered that this was not an organization rule but an FDA regulation that applies to all blood drive companies across the nation. This form of discrimination is a perfect example of institutional homophobia that is not to be tolerated and should be promptly changed.
First and foremost, we can’t ignore the history that the 1981 AIDS epidemic victims largely included gay men. However, the LGBT+ population was not the only group of people affected. According to a CDC report, only about 27,000 of the people diagnosed with HIV in 2016 were gay or bisexual men. This is a tiny fraction of all gay or bisexual men in the U.S. Yet society has enforced the connotation of HIV with strictly the LGBT+ community, further marginalizing the group from the rest of society.
Additionally, blood drives seem to associate sex between men with automatic HIV contraction despite basic sex education. Within the statement on the eligibility questionnaire regarding if a man has had intercourse with another man, it does not once address the more important danger present of whether this sex was unprotected (which would actually create the risk of STI infection) or if the sex was within a monogamous relationship.
Unlike this regulation, HIV does not discriminate based on sexual orientation. Other than unsterile needle usage, unsafe sex is the main risk factor for sexual HIV transmission, as taught in basic high school sex education, yet this detail is completely ignored.
The absurdity is continued as the penalty of engaging in sex between men intercourse is placed on the same level as prostitution (see point “exchanged sex for money or drugs”). If a person engages in either sexual act, they are prohibited from giving blood for an entire year. By putting the two on the same caliber, this depicts the gay community as inherently unsafe and promiscuous.
The solution to this problem is difficult, as students need to participate in blood drives. Most blood drive organizations will receive about 20 percent of all their donations from college campuses. Hence, there is a serious need for an alternative solution that doesn’t hinder the collection of blood, but which helps end the stereotype that all gay men have HIV.
As student activists, both LGBT+ community members and allies, we need to take charge in fighting this homophobic stereotype. Proper education about safe sex and HIV contraction can help reform national policies to reverse the LGBT+ marginalization associated with blood drives. The NC State student body has the power to send a message to policy creators that this type of discrimination is not tolerated.
Blood drives are a great source of blood donations that help millions of people throughout the nation; however, the institutionalized homophobia that they support is appalling. We should be encouraging the donation of as much healthy blood as possible, rather than watching these organizations and the FDA discriminate against a minority population with many eligible donors.
