Hi Everyone!

There will be a blood donor clinic on campus this coming Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 from 11 am to 5 pm. It will be held in the McMaster University Student Center, 3rd floor (CIBC Hall).

Donating blood is a great way to give back, and will only take an hour of your time! Each donation can save up to three lives. For further questions, or to book an appointment, please call 1-888-2-DONATE or visit blood.ca

Thanks for the note. I'll be sure to donate blood yet again !

I'd be really happy to donate blood except I am not allowed because I am gay. How cute.

Originally Posted by L'Étoile

I'd be really happy to donate blood except I am not allowed because I am gay. How cute.

That's honestly something which should be looked at..and changed. No one should be restricted from donating blood if they meet all of the health requirements/conditions..regardles s of sexual orientation.

EDIT:

I'm sure anyone can just lie when answering if they had sex with another male or whatever..so I'm sure they just all the donated blood anyway, so what gives..?

Originally Posted by herBs

That's honestly something which should be looked at..and changed. No one should be restricted from donating blood if they meet all of the health requirements/conditions..regardles s of sexual orientation.

EDIT:

I'm sure anyone can just lie when answering if they had sex with another male or whatever..so I'm sure they just all the donated blood anyway, so what gives..?

Exactly. If they test all the blood, then there shouldn't be a problem.
If they aren't testing all the blood, then that in and of itself is a problem.

It's discrimination masked as medical necessity. Many people refuse to give blood in protest of this policy.

As I understand it, blood can test negative for HIV for <6 months, which is why you get tested again at the 6 month interval after exposure. Gay men are unfortunately the demographic with the highest rate of HIV (one article I recently read put it at 1 in 5 Canadian men are HIV positive but that seems really high to me). Same reason people born in Africa, people who have used intravenous drugs, people who have taken money for sex, people who have slept with any of the above/people who have slept with people and don't know their sexual history are also barred from donating, or at least that's my understanding. I just donated my 30th pint on Christmas Eve so I've gotten the interrogation many times by now haha

Originally Posted by starfish

Exactly. If they test all the blood, then there shouldn't be a problem.
If they aren't testing all the blood, then that in and of itself is a problem.

It's discrimination masked as medical necessity. Many people refuse to give blood in protest of this policy.

Refusing to give blood in protest of a policy really isn't doing much except hurting the people who need blood... and there is a shortage of donors this year. I agree that the rules need to be revamped but boycotting Canadian Blood Services is ridiculous. Do their principles extend to refusing transfusions?

Originally Posted by Kudos

As I understand it, blood can test negative for HIV for <6 months, which is why you get tested again at the 6 month interval after exposure. Gay men are unfortunately the demographic with the highest rate of HIV (one article I recently read put it at 1 in 5 Canadian men are HIV positive but that seems really high to me). Same reason people born in Africa, people who have used intravenous drugs, people who have taken money for sex, people who have slept with any of the above/people who have slept with people and don't know their sexual history are also barred from donating, or at least that's my understanding. I just donated my 30th pint on Christmas Eve so I've gotten the interrogation many times by now haha

There are also people who would argue that those restrictions are unnecessary as well.

Although for the IV drug users, there's a ton of drugs out there and you're supposed to tell them any drug (illegal or legal) that you're taking. It's not really feasible to test every blood sample for thousands of drugs, but those can have very very negative consequences for the person receiving the transfusion...so in that case I don't think it's only about HIV, although that would definitely be a factor too.

Originally Posted by Kudos

Refusing to give blood in protest of a policy really isn't doing much except hurting the people who need blood... and there is a shortage of donors this year. I agree that the rules need to be revamped but boycotting Canadian Blood Services is ridiculous. Do their principles extend to refusing transfusions?

I didn't say I agreed with it, I said that's what many people do. There's always a shortage of donors, but the logic is that if enough people refuse to give blood then they'll have no choice but to look at their restrictions to try and allow more people to be eligible to donate, because there's so much more demand than there is supply. Refusing to accept blood lessens the demand, which doesn't achieve that goal. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some who refuse to accept blood on those principles, but I really don't think it's common.

I don't think it's right to use (and potentially kill) people who need blood in order to achieve a political gain, but I understand the logic behind their decisions and at the end of the day, a person can choose to donate or not donate for whatever reasons they want, whether or not others agree with them. Anyways, this is hardly the only case of a vulnerable group of people being used as pawns for political reasons, it happens all the time. For a recent example, Russia banned Americans from adopting Russian orphans, in retaliation for an unrelated bill the US passed that they believed unfairly singled out Russians. There are far more orphans in Russia than there are potential adoptive parents, and the American bill had nothing to do with adoption, but now millions of orphans are being used for political reasons that will probably never benefit them in any way.

Originally Posted by L'Étoile

I'd be really happy to donate blood except I am not allowed because I am gay. How cute.

how would they know?

Even though its still discriminatory, why not just test possible "HIV gay blood" a bunch of times or just keep it on ice for a while to increase possible detection?

And I agree, not donating as a form of protest is dumb. If you did to this as a form of protest, at least go and donate blood then right after they take the needle out of your arm tell them you don't want them to use your blood for your protest reasons. If you just don't do it you're just a lazypants and doing nothing to advance your 'cause'

Heh... lazypants