The American
Academy of HIV Medicine, the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda
Legal, and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association have
issued a joint press statement in support of plans by
the Food and Drug Administration to later this year
discuss ending the nation's barring of gay blood
donors. An FDA spokesman said earlier this month that the
agency's Blood Products Advisory Committee will
meet later this year to consider lifting the lifetime
ban on any male blood donor who has had sex with another man
even one time since 1977.
The FDA's
decision to review the ban was prompted by statements from
the American Association of Blood Banks,
America's Blood Centers, and the American Red
Cross that newer blood screening techniques catch virtually
all cases of HIV-infected blood donations, making the
lifetime prohibition of gay donors unnecessary.
Instead, the agency will consider implementing a
policy where gay men who've engage in high-risk acts
are deferred from donating for one year. The same
one-year deferral policy is already in place for other
groups at high risk for HIV infection.
"There is no
scientific data to support the FDA's current policy of
excluding men who have sex with men, as a group, from blood
donation," said Jon Givner, director of Lambda Legal's HIV
Project, in a statement. "We encourage the FDA to
revisit its policy and adopt a screening process based
on science and real risk rather than irrational
fears."
The groups do
worry, however, that even if the FDA revises its deferral
policy for gay men, the agency may still regard all sex acts
by gay men as being high-risk and give an automatic
one-year deferral to gay men who've had sex
during the past year. This would continue to prevent the
vast majority of gay men from donating blood, even if they
always use condoms or are in monogamous relationships,
the groups say.
"Our
number 1 concern remains the safety of America's
blood supply," said Chris Labonte, legislative
director of HRC, in a statement. "Deferrals
should be based on risky behavior not on identity, which is
currently the policy of the FDA. Playing identity
politics does nothing to protect the blood
supply."
Joel Ginsberg,
executive director of GLMA, said the FDA, the Red Cross,
and the blood agencies should be applauded for beginning to
address the discriminatory policy preventing gay men
from donating blood. "Now we must follow
through on this commitment with rational policies that base
deferrals on risk behaviors rather than categorical
groupings," he says. (The Advocate)
