The Young Liberals of Canada are speaking out against the Canadian Blood Service’s (CBS) ban on donations from men who have had sex with other men.
Over thirty years ago, CBS and Héma-Quebec designed a policy to protect Canada’s blood supply from HIV/AIDS. The policy put in place a lifetime ban from giving blood for any male who has had sex with another male since 1977. A recent change in policy allows these men to donate if they have been celibate for the last five years, even if they are in a monogamous relationship and practice safe sex.
With the relaxation of the policy, many people have said that it is a step in the right direction, including Mark Wainberg, a McGill University HIV/AIDS researcher and a former president of the International AIDS Society.
“I think it is a step in the right direction regarding non-discrimination and stigmatization of gay men. But it also means that gay men must accept total celibacy to be blood donors,” he said.
CBS has acknowledged that moving from a total ban to the five-year rule is the first step to incorporating gay men into the donation system. “The message to them today is to simply bear with us,” Dana Devine, vice-president of medical, scientific and research affairs at CBS said.
“We are working toward attempting to make the opportunity for additional people to donate blood . . . and we just aren’t quite there yet for that group of people.”
A number of other countries already allow men who have been with other men to give blood, and some others use a shorter deferral period than Canada has settled on. In Britain and Australia, men who haven’t had sex with other men for at least a year are eligible to donate. In South Africa the deferral period is six months. However, the United States still retains a lifetime ban.
Hilary Martin, a representative of the Young Liberals of Canada at Carleton University, agreed the elimination of the ban is the right way to move forward.
However, Martin said “it is still a very prohibitive rule. Men who have been in monogamous relationships for a long time and who practice safe sex cannot donate. At a time in Canada’s history when the LGBTTQ community has achieved equality in so many other facets of life, and blood donations are sorely needed, it doesn’t make sense to prevent a sizeable section of the population from giving.”
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Canadian Blood Services reduces lifetime ban against gay men
