Why can't gay people give blood to Red Cross in Australia?

Question

Is it just gay men not allowed to give blood or gay women too? Is gay blood different to straight blood?

Answer 1

It's not just in Australia:
Australian gay groups say the Red Cross policy barring sexually active gay men from donating blood is discriminatory because it automatically assumes gay men are an HIV risk.
U.S. blood-donation regulations in effect since the 1980s prohibit any gay or bisexual man who has had sex with another man since 1977 from donating blood. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees U.S. blood donation policies, says the ban is needed because gay men are at a higher risk of HIV and hepatitis infection—and of possibly passing those diseases through donated blood.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

That's a good question. If the reason is because of a hightened risk of AIDS contamination, does this infer that the Red Cross don't have a sure way of verifying that the blood donated by heteros is clean?

If so, that is a serious problem, since there are many ways in which straight people can be infected with HIV. If the Red Cross will not accept blood donations from gays, they need to give us a better reason, not only to placate the gay community, but as an assurance to the countless people who have had blood transfusions in Australian hospitals.

Answer 4

Wow this is so weird. Here in Venezuela we have never been asked when donating blood about our sexual orientation. The only questions asked are if you've taking any stong medicine and if you've had a tattoo done in the past six months; and the tattoo question is reasonable, you could get infected with hepatitis if you didn't do it in a healthy place.

And blood is always tested before being used; and if your blood isn't "good", they'll tell you. I don't understand this.

Another way of looking at this, the laws that prohibit the donation of gay people are from 1977, right? it has not been changed, and the laws are from times when people had no idea how HID/AIDS infected from person to person. Maybe it's just lazyness to not change the laws.

Either way this is shocking.

Answer 5

Give Blood Australia

Answer 6

I'm not sure how the Australia thing works out, but any at risk person can't shouldn't give blood. If you are a gay male and have had unprotected sex then you are at a higher risk for HIV. Same here if you've had a tattoo in 6 months. Interesting isn't it.

Answer 7

I'm a gay person who donates blood regularly, but have never been in a gay relationship, but whether your gay or straight doesn't really matter, at the end of the day anyone can be at risk.

Answer 8

I'm gay and in the US you can't donate blood to the Red Cross either but what I know for damn sure is that if I ever need blood the Red Cross can't refuse me.
**** them..their loss and their stupidity for being too behind in the times!!

Answer 9

At the onset of the AIDS epidemic, most blood banks stopped accepting blood from men who have sex with men, since they were among the highest risk groups for transmission of the virus. In some places, with increased awareness and with better testing of collected blood, this has been relaxed, but in many or maybe even most, men who have sex with other men are still not solicited for blood donations.

Answer 10

Supposedly those bastards think that gay men are in a higher risk category for catching HIV/AIDS because they engage in anal sex. The reasons why anal sex is so risky, is because the rectum is not made to stretch like the vaginal walls are, therefore there is a higher risk of the rectum splitting and causing bleeding due to the penetration. Therefore somebody decided that this was a high risk category and decided to exclude gay men from donating blood. They are not allowed to do so here in the United States either. Its one of the questions they use to screen you when you go to give blood, they ask if you engage in sodomy or have you had sex with a man who has....WTF, haven't these people heard of condoms, duh....