[Blood Donation] Homosexual Men Banned

[LeeSmithG]

I cannot believe this story is actually true.

It is offensive.

Myself I am heterosexual and when I read this on ceefax bbc 1010 I became outraged.

 

''Northern Ireland's Department of Health does not have any medical evidence of its own to support a permanent ban on gay men donating blood, a BBC investigation has found.

Other parts of the UK have a one-year deferral period for men who have had sex with men and want to donate, but Northern Ireland has an outright ban.

A judge has ruled the health minister did not have the power to keep the ban.

The current health minister, Jim Wells, is appealing the judgment.''

John O'Doherty from gay support group, the Rainbow project, said there was no medical evidence to justify the ban imposed by former health minister Edwin Poots, DUP.

 

He told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster on Thursday: "It is a ridiculous situation.

"We supported a lifetime ban during the Aids crisis because it was in response to medical need.

"This is a decision that has to be made on a medical basis. We are continually hearing from the blood service that they need blood, yet we are blanket saying no to gay and bi-sexual men.

"At the same time, Northern Ireland is taking blood from Scotland where they have removed the ban on gay and bi-sexual men giving blood."

Mr O'Doherty said the equality legislation was "only as strong as those who implement it".

The bar on gay men donating blood was put in place across the UK during the Aids crisis of the 1980s, but was lifted in England, Scotland and Wales in November 2011.

New rules were introduced that allowed blood donations from men whose last sexual contact with another man was more than a year earlier, but Northern Ireland did not follow suit.

 

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-31131316

 

I don't like the use of the word 'gay' describing sexuality, as gay means happy and mirth et cetera, has zero to do with sexuality it is a hijack.

However, they are making the assumption that all homosexual men have H.I.V.

H.I.V. is mainly infecting heterosexuals.

So how about giving the people that wish to donate blood a test to see if they are satisfactory rather than making an assumption.

 

I did not know Britain and Northern Ireland had such draconian rules.

 

I am outraged. 

[jtmulc]

I haven't kept up on this topic, but I believe they are just now getting around to allowing bisexual and homosexual men to donate blood in the U.S.