Canadian
Blood
Services
hints
at
revisiting
controversial
ban
on
gay
blood
By
Barb
Woolsey,
The
Carillon
(University
of
Regina)
REGINA(CUP)
--
Canadian
Blood
Services
could
be
in
the
process
of
reviewing
its
controversial
ban
on
donations
from
men
who
have
sex
with
men,
suggest
recent
comments
at
the
University
of
Regina.
Student
groups
across
the
country
have
decried
Canadian
Blood
Services'
men
who
have
sex
with
men
policy,
which
refuses
donations
from
any
man
who
admits
to
having
had
sex
with
another
man,
at
any
time,
since
1977.
On
Feb.
12,
however,
CBS
spokespeople
defended
the
ban
but
also
suggested
that
it
could
change
in
the
near
future.
"The
policy
is
not
based
on
sexual
orientation;
it
is
based
on
risk
factors,"
said
Lorna
Tessier
from
the
CBS
national
office.
"There
is
a
large
gender
gap
in
HIV
occurrence
between
males
and
females.
It
is
a
sophisticated
pathogen
...
a
two
week
window
penod
exists
in
which
it
cannot
be
detected
at
all."
They
are,
however,
open
to
changing
that
policy.
Tessier
assured
students
that
research
into
such
options
could
begin
as
early
as
this
summer.
"We're
the
first
to
say
that
...
there
probably
is
a
better
way
to
do
this,"
she
said.
Some
students
are
hoping
that
that
solution
comes
forward
sooner
rather
than
later.
Nathan
Seckinger,
executive
director
of
campus
Centre
for
Sexuality
and
Gender
Diversity,
said
that
the
reliability
of
the
donor
questionnaires,
upon
which
the
entire
policy
rests,
don't
even
work.
"I
know
for
a
fact
people
lie
on
those
questionnaires,"
Seckinger
asserted
"My
concern
is
that
people
..
are
cheating
the
system
because
they
feel
discriminated
against."
Seckinger
also
wants
people
to
consider
the
social
and
cultural
effects
of
the
policy.
"Having
policies
like
this
propagates
unhealthy
stereotypes
about
men
who
have
sex
with
men,
that
we
are
dirty
and
disease-ridden
and
contagious
.
.
.
enforcing
a
policy
that
is
so
sweeping
is
a
serious
problem
for
us,
especially
in
dealing
with
this
stigma."
Students
also
suggested
implementing
a
donor
system
similar
to
those
in
other
countries.
Australia,
for
example,
only
bans
men
who
have
had
sex
with
men
in
the
year
prior
to
the
donation.
Students
also
suggested
alternative
approaches
to
screening,
such
as
questionnaires
that
focus
on
behaviour
as
opposed
to
lifestyle.
According
to
some
students
at
the
presentation,
the
current
donor
policy
has
convinced
them
to
not
give
blood.
"I
have
a
lot
of
friends
who
are
homosexual
...
it
feels
like
betrayal,"
said
one
female
student
at
the
presentation.
"I
just
can't
do
it."
Another
agreed.
"I'm
completely
eligible,
I
could
give
blood
at
any
time.
What's
going
on
right
now
is
discriminatory
and
because
of
that
I
won't
donate."
A
number
of
students'
unions
across
the
country
have
gone
so
far
as
to
ban
CBS
from
their
campuses
because
of
the
policy,
which
they
have
deemed
discriminatory.
Carleton
University's
students'
union
was
the
latest
to
fight
the
ban.
The
Concordia
University
students'
union
passed
a
mandate
morally
objecting
to
Hema-Quebec
and
Canadian
Blood
Services'
policies.
At
McGill
University,
blood
drives
are
banned
from
the
McGill
student
union
centre
for
the
same
reasons.
The
Newfoundland
wing
of
the
Canadian
Federation
of
Students
has
also
protested
the
policy
and
the
students'
union
at
the
University
of
Western
Ontario
also
added
their
voice
to
the
melee.
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