Gay organizations
and AIDS advocacy groups in South Africa are worried
about a public backlash against gays, following the
announcement by a fringe gay group that its
members--including one with AIDS--had donated
blood to protest a new ban on gay blood donors in the
country. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance announced on
Friday that its members lied on questionnaires about
their sexual orientation and sexual histories before
donating blood and that many had a history of high-risk sex
and have never been tested for HIV infection.
Last week the
South African National Blood Service announced it was no
longer accepting blood donations from sexually active gay
men, who are at a high risk of HIV infection, it says.
The decision angered gay groups around the country and
led to the risky blood donations by Gay and
Lesbian Alliance members to protest the policy.
But gay leaders
in the country say the alliance's actions could lead
to a backlash against gay people in the country.
"We are incredibly opposed to this terror
tactic of the GLA," Glen de Swart of the Triangle
Project, the nation's oldest gay group, told Agence
France-Presse. Mark Heywood, a spokesman for the South
African HIV advocacy group Treatment Action Campaign,
called the organization's actions "criminal
and irresponsible," adding that they
"can only inflame passions and fuel
homophobia."
The blood service
says it will take legal action against any donor who
deliberately tries to donate HIV-infected blood and pass the
virus on to others, but it notes that it has been
unable so far to track down the records of any of
the Gay and Lesbian Alliance members who claimed to
have lied on their questionnaires. (Advocate.com)