Citing a federal guideline meant to prevent the blood supply from being tainted with HIV, students at Southern Oregon University have canceled a planned blood drive, saying the regulation discriminates against homosexuals, reports the Associated Press.
SOU has a non-discrimination policy activists say prohibits asking potential male blood donors if they have had homosexual sex since 1977, which, under the federal guideline, would make them ineligible to donate.
“From my understanding, it’s a rule (the federal government) made up in the 1980s, and people are not up to date,” David Adkins-Brown, SOU multicultural senator, told AP.
Even though homosexual men account for 42 percent of HIV-AIDS sufferers, Adkins-Brown claims it is wrong to label it a homosexual disease.
“I know I’ve been yelling about it for years,” said Daniel Conner, a senior, according to the AP report. “I’m a gay man, and I don’t like being forced to lie to help people.”
The guidelines were established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the 1980s as a way to reduce risk to blood recipients.
Intravenous drug users also are ineligible to donate blood.
Dr. Leslie Holness, medical officer for the division of blood applications for the FDA, talked about the screening process.
“The committee is reluctant to change present guidelines if they seem to be protective,” Holness told AP. “You have to balance how much good you’re doing with a safe blood supply with the bad feelings you’re stirring in groups of people.”
The student leader who made the decision to cancel the blood drive says she “made the right decision.”
