California County
Opposes Ban on Gay Blood Donors

The Santa Clara, Calif., County board of supervisors voted Tuesday to oppose the Food and Drug Administration's ban on blood donations from gay men and called for federal lobbyists to concentrate on overturning the ban, according to a story in The [San Jose] Mercury News. Board members said they made the symbolic decision, proposed by gay supervisor Ken Yeager, because blood banks can screen for HIV infection more effectively now than when the ban was imposed, in 1983. The supervisors did not vote to ban blood drives on county property, to avoid depleting area hospitals of blood supplies, but they said they might revisit the idea in the future.

The FDA says the ban exists because gay men are at a much higher risk of carrying HIV than the general population.

San Jose State University president Don Kassing recently stopped blood drives on campus, arguing they violated the school's antidiscrimination regulations. (The Advocate)