By Katrina Pyne, Staff Contributor
Patrick Hawkes would love to stand in line, roll up his sleeves, and donate blood. There’s just one problem – the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) won’t let him.
The reason Hawkes can’t donate is because he’s gay. As it stands now, a man who has had sex with another man (MSM) at least one time since 1977 can’t donate blood because he is considered “high risk.”
It doesn’t matter that he goes for regular HIV screening tests. It’s irrelevant that CBS say they will need 90,000 new donors a year to satisfy the growing need.
“You want blood. I’m willing to donate. Why wouldn’t you take it?” says Hawkes, a fourth-year pharmacy student at Dalhousie University and an activist for change in Halifax.
The CBS website states that “the Canadian Blood Services’ deferral policies do not apply specifically to individuals based on their sexual orientation; the policies are in place to defer any individual, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, who has engaged in one or more high-risk behaviour.”
“It’s true there is more prevalence of HIV in MSM since 1977,” says Jacqueline Gahagan, a professor in health promotions at Dal. “I’m not disputing that. What I am disputing is that all gay men are prolific spreaders of disease.”
The McLaughlin Donor Deferral Risk Assessment of 2006 outlined what it called the “risk-risk” situation. There is an estimated increase in the risk of transfusing infectious diseases, however, there is a potential risk of inadequate supplies of blood.
“I know the policy isn’t based on discrimination, but it’s promoting it. It’s saying that all gay men are extremely sexually promiscuous and they all have AIDS, which just isn’t true,” says Hawkes.
“We all want to know the blood is safe for our consumption when we need it,” says Gahagan. “The down side is that we are weeding out such a sizeable part of the population doing this.”
“If it was your human rights being violated, you wouldn’t be happy about that,” she says.
The CBS is currently reviewing whether the MSM deferral policy is discriminatory under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Kyle Freeman’s case has sparked this review.
Freeman is a sexually active gay man who provided false information during the donor screening process and illegally donated blood. He later confessed this in an anonymous e-mail, which the CBS traced back to him.
Freeman has now counter-sued the CBS and the Attorney General of Canada for discrimination, seeking damages and a declaration striking the MSM policy down.
“I think they should test his blood and if it’s okay, then … thank him for the 18 donations he’s given,” says Hawkes.
The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to provide a verdict later this year.
“The screening process should be more bio-medically driven,” says Gahagan. “Screen the blood properly (and) put the extra cost into that as opposed to interrogating people.”
“The public health machinery needs to do its job, so it’s okay to violate rights.”
Gahagan would like to see more emphasis on HIV testing, instead of on a more specific and comprehensive interview process to blood donors.
Hawkes says he goes for regular HIV screenings.
“I can say I know my status. I don’t know of any other people, specifically heterosexual, that can say that.”
“Come on, if you got HIV tested every three months saying you’re negative, you’re probably okay,” says Hawkes.
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