Gay people banned from giving blood - homophobic? <again>

[Fridayfeeling]

No this is not the 1980s, apparently it is still the case that gay men are banned from donating blood.

The NHS National Blood Service say that its reasons for banning gay people from becoming blood donors come down to cost,their opinion is that blood from a gay person is more likely to be infected than blood from a straight person. Therefore, they say, the costs of screening gay blood are too high.

But that's my point, MF. I am quite sure that heterosexual people who engaged in anal sex would also be banned from giving blood. Do you seriously believe that the NHS discriminates against homosexuals in this day and age? Whatever decisions they make will be based purely on medical considerations.

It's all about what you're prepared to disclose when you fill out the forms. A gay man can lie, as can a heterosexual. If you are asked to tick a box which asks 'have you ever indulged in anal sex?, a gay and a hetero are both placed in exactly the same position.

They can answer YES or NO.

Martian - so what you are saying is:

HIV was seen in gay men at the beginning of the AIDS crisis (Gay plague) but although the fastest infection rates are in straight people now, it is still 'ok' to class an entire group of people, who probably all vastly differ in their sexual activities - just as much as heterosexual people do.

I just cannot agree with grouping entire groups of people together just on their sexual orientation - they may never have had a partner, had one partner or had hundreds - the same as heterosexual people. It just strikes me, as I originally said that it is homophobic and discriminatory to say that ALL gay men are high risk - some may be, but maybe some are not - surely there is another way of classifying high risk, rather than being gay?

No, if you read my post carefully you will see that I have not said that. However it is part of the reason that Aids is still more common in gay people than straight in the west.

In africa it is quite different

and can I point out that you used the inflamatory (and quite incorrect phrase) gay plague, and not I

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UK statistics show that gay men are still the largest group of people in the UK to have aids. Which is a tragedy.

Homophobia is an outrage (and if you search under my use name on other treats today you will see my views on it)

But safety of blood transfusions is difficult because of the biology behind it. and the blood transfusion service is playing it safe, since it remembers the transfusion cases in the 80s

By the way - the actual question on the NHS Blood donor site is:

"Are you a man who has had oral or anal sex with another man? ( even if you used a condom?)"

Wonder what oral sex has to do with it???

MF statistically in the UK , yes you would.

The largest number group of people in the UK having the Aids virus are gay men.

If you have sex with gay men, then your risks would he the same as a gay man. But one assumes the mmed you'd be having anal sex with would be straight.

In africa the risk would be equally great with gay or straight partmner

Friday, read MB's post again. She is a scientist, not given to hyperbole.

When Aids first came to the world's attention, it was revealed that gay men in the US (and of course, not all .. nobody's that silly), were hugely promiscuous. This is/was relevant to the Western world in the 80s, and the 'gay scene' at the time was widely reported.

Africa faces a different problem, but with the same end result.

You may not like the inference, but it doesn't make it less true.

I'm not aware of any documented cases of aids transfer via oral sex.

If it did happen I would assume there would need to be a lesion on the mouth, or throat.

ejaculation into the eyes is a very risky practice, and could transfer the virus.

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Why not women who could be doing exactly the same as the gay men - and coming across people with HIV - despite your stats that there are 'more' in the gay groups - it is still there ? Are there no heterosexual women who have had sex with a gay man? Would they know?

Still seems homophobic to me despite the points put acoss?

No, but statistically you are still more likely to get AIDs from having anal sex with a gay man than from a striaght man.

Yes, you could be passing the aids virus along, but the risks are less.

It is (and I';m being serious here) awful that the aids epidemic started off in the gay population in a west.....a group of people who were already stignmatised and discriminated against. To the point that many of them couldn't be honest about their sexuality. It would have been dreadful for which ever population it first arose in.

But the statistcs stand. It is still more common in the gay community. and while I strongly feel that homophobia is wrong, you can't argue away the stats.

and yes, they could ask everyone in minute detail about their sex lives, but I expect that the Blood transfusion people probably feel that they would put off even more people that way.

I would imagine that the numbers of women having sex with gay men is limited. In fact I think that you can argue that any gay man who has sex with a woman is, by definition Bi.

Umm, well I agree that it is rather discriminatory if the question is 'are you a man who has had anal sex?'

The question should simply be 'have you had anal sex?'

Somebody made a reference earlier in the thread, which may or may not be a factor. Cynical though it sounds, perhaps they phrase the question this way to discourage gay men from having, what is in essence, a free HIV test?

and please note these are not 'my' statistics but the UK governments.

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HIV tests are free anyway.

And have been so from the offset, to prevent anyone who thought that they were at risk (gay straight or bi) going to donate blood 'just' to get tested.

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"They should leave it, test the blood, and be done with it.". but as mb pointed out earlier in the thread, not all testing is acurate, because once you take the blood, no antibodies will be produced, so if you take te blood in the window period then it will show no antibodies and yet the doner could still be HIV positive.

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BTW Des - I totally understand the points made about where AIDS was first 'discovered' - and that is what this discussion is really about. AIDS was put out as a gay plague - as I said before - not my words but the words at the time - and yes it is very offensive - but now we are older and wiser, surely we should not STILL be discriminating on those lines for a whole group of people just because of their sexual orientation

eh? Infected blood is better than no blood!

I think not.