This past Friday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decided to uphold the federal ban against sexually active gay men donating blood. The ban has been in effect for 25 years, when the AIDS blood scare first began.
You probably remember young hemophiliac Ryan White who was infected with HIV in 1984 after receiving a tainted blood treatment. White died at the age of 18 in 1990. Another early victim of tainted blood was actor Paul Michael Glaser’s wife Elizabeth. She contracted HIV after receiving a blood transfusion when giving birth to their first child Ariel. She didn’t learn she had the disease for four years, after which she had given birth to her second child Jake. All three ended up HIV positive. Ariel died in 1988 and Elizabeth died in 1994. Jake continues to thrive despite having AIDS.
The ban refuses to let any man donate blood that has had sex with another man since 1977, even if it was only once. The Blood Centers of the Pacific asked that the HHS allow gay men who had not had sex with another man in the last year to donate. The 12 month wait is what is required of other high risk individuals, such as those who have received a tattoo.
Senator John Kerry and a group of senators urged the HHS to remove the ban, saying it was discriminatory. Kerry pointed out that this ban was “responsible for turning away thousands of healthy donors from blood clinics across the country, not because they have engaged in highly risky behavior, but because they are gay,” and pointed out that the “blood could save lives.”
A committee decided to leave the ban in place, saying there was not enough research to justify the removal of the ban.
Ken Yeager, the Santa Clara County supervisor, called the ban “archaic” and said the American Red Cross called the policy “medically unnecessary.” He felt the decision to keep the ban in place was rooted in “ignorance, not science.”