Bay Area Reporter - September 14, 2000
Terry Beswick

Since 1985, healthy citizens are asked, and are expected to tell, whether or not they are gay if they want to donate blood.

"Are you a male who has had sex with another male EVEN ONCE since 1977?" asks question #9 on the donor form used by the Blood Centers of the Pacific, with donation sites throughout Northern California.

If they answer, "yes," they get the boot.

Every year, Blood Centers of the Pacific issues a public appeal for donations. And every year, particularly in communities like San Francisco with a large gay population, it and other blood banks are frustrated that they are forced to exclude virtually all gay and bisexual men -- or risk losing their license.

"Gay men could potentially account for as much as 25 percent of San Francisco's daily need if we were allowed to donate," said Supervisor Mark Leno, who has led protests against the ban. "Given chronic shortages, HIV-negative gay men with usable blood should not be prevented by some outdated regulation from saving someone's life."

Today and tomorrow, an FDA advisory panel meets outside Washington, D.C., to review arguments for and against using an affirmative response to the "gay question" as criterion to reject donations from the least fortunate among us -- those who haven't had sex of any kind at all in the last 23 years.

The FDA has held a number of workshops in recent years looking at the fact that science has gotten ahead of public policy on the issue, setting the stage for a cautious reappraisal of the discriminatory exclusion, and at today's meeting of the FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee, experts are expected to testify that advanced tests can detect the presence of HIV in the blood within just 20 days of infection.

Still, rather than lifting the ban altogether, federal officials are considering only narrowing it -- continuing to exclude men who have had any kind of sex with even one other man within the last year. Early this year Blood Centers of the Pacific issued a statement supporting the idea of a one-year deferral.

But Leno, who sponsored a resolution from the Board of Supervisors last year opposing the ban, believes the guidelines should be revised to exclude people on the basis of their "risky behavior," rather than their sexual orientation.

"It is simply bad science that federal regulators single out gay men from donating but allow heterosexuals who are similarly at risk for HIV to donate," Leno said, referring to the fact that heterosexuals who had engaged in unprotected anal intercourse will still be allowed to donate, for example, while gay men who had even one episode of oral sex, or anal sex with a condom, within the last year will be prohibited from donating.

Currently, in addition to men who have had sex with men, potential donors are also excluded if they have engaged in prostitution, if they have used intravenous drugs, or if they are hemophiliac and have received clotting factor concentrates, since 1977 -- or if they have had sex with any of the above in the last 12 months, among other exclusions.

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