About 4.5 millions American die every year because of lack of blood bags available for transfusion. Approximately 32,000 pints of blood is needed everyday. The donation of blood is strictly regulated and the received blood is first tested and is kept for only 46 days if not frozen which can be saved for a year. About 5% of Americans donate blood yearly, With these numbers you would think that the Red Cross or FDA would appreciate if more people could donate. But up to the year 2015, gay men that had sex with another man is forbidden from donating forever. By the end of 2015 the regulation changed to forbidden to donate for 1 year. There is no regulation about any heterosexual couples that had sex before donation. This is clearly LGBT+ discrimination.
Although there is this argument that men who have had sex with other men since 1977 have a HIV prevalence 60 times higher then the general population. This might be a good explanation why gay men is targeted in this situation, except the fact that African Americans population contains about 40% of all people that lives with HIV. But there is no regulations referencing race, why? Because discriminating anyone because of their race is illegal. Is discriminating against LGBT+ illegal? Not in all of the states. The real question is why is it not illegal to discriminate someone based on their gender preference?
Personal
I choose this topic because it surprised me, while I doing research i was so surprised that being LGBT+ can prevent you from saving a life. I have been actively donating blood for about 5 years, since high school. So this came very surprising to me because I was never asked if i had sex with the same sex, so I never thought that there was a regulation that forbids men that had sex with other men to donate. I felt kind of sad after hearing this because it shows that there is still very little protection to the LGBT+ community. Hopefully, though this post the public with notice the vulnerability of the LGBT+ group.
Community Members
Being gay wasn't a choice, but it seems absurd that being gay prevents me from helping others.
-Kaiyin Lau
Reference
56 Facts about Blood Donation. https://www.bnl.gov/hr/blooddrive/56facts.asp
Risk by Racial/Ethnic Groups https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/racialethnic/africanamericans/index.html
Revised Recommendations for Reducing the Risk of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Transmission by Blood and Blood Products - Questions and Answers https://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/bloodbloodproducts/questionsaboutblood/ucm108186.htm
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