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Banned4Life Blood Drive Takes Aim At FDA's Anti-Gay Donation Policy
The Huffington Post  | by  James Nichols
Posted: 02/21/2014 10:04 am EST Updated: 02/21/2014 10:59 am EST Print Article

Banned4Life is an organization dedicated to changing the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ban on the donation of blood by men who have sex with men.

On Feb. 23, the organization is partnering with Rainbow Grocery Cooperative for a community-wide blood drive that aims to put pressure on the FDA to reconsider it's ban on gay blood donation. Occurring in San Francisco, the drive also hopes to provide necessary blood to a city with a high gay population that has recently declared severe blood shortages as a result of the Polar Vortex.

"When I tried to donate blood for my friend Emmy, who has sickle-cell anemia, I was turned away because I'm gay," Blake Lynch of Banned4Life told The Huffington Post. "The FDA's policy is discriminatory and outdated. Through Banned4Life's campaign on Causes, we are rallying thousands of people across the nation to stand up against this ban."

Supporters of Banned4Life are encouraged to donate blood and dedicate the donation to someone who is currently banned from providing their own blood. Individuals are also urged to sign the petition to remove the FDA ban on gay blood donation here.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/21/banned4life-blood-drive_n_4826215.html

and how would they even determine that as a standard?


did someone walk up and say "I have sex with men and I'm here to donate blood"

Quoted from senders

and how would they even determine that as a standard?


did someone walk up and say "I have sex with men and I'm here to donate blood"

Isn't that a question they ask on the form you fill-in when donating.
Besides, it was intended to not use potentially infected AIDS blood.
Thought that al blood is now screened after donation for those specific markers.
If that is the case, would make the issue mute.

Quoted from joebxr

Isn't that a question they ask on the form you fill-in when donating.
Besides, it was intended to not use potentially infected AIDS blood.
Thought that al blood is now screened after donation for those specific markers.
If that is the case, would make the issue mute.

right? but who actually answer the stupid question?

They use risk categories for donors as an extra back-up. I had a relative get turned away from having lived overseas during a mad cow outbreak, and they even figure it by number of days you lived there and so forth. They claim those questions help, I guess some people still don't know they have a risk factor until somebody tells them.
I don't like the trend of getting PC with the public health. PC kills. Gay male sex puts you at high risk of diseases that transfer through blood. I would not want a loved one of mine to get blood from a high-risk donor. Screening tests can always fail, and AIDS is on the increase.

Quoted from Madam X

They use risk categories for donors as an extra back-up. I had a relative get turned away from having lived overseas during a mad cow outbreak, and they even figure it by number of days you lived there and so forth. They claim those questions help, I guess some people still don't know they have a risk factor until somebody tells them.
I don't like the trend of getting PC with the public health. PC kills. Gay male sex puts you at high risk of diseases that transfer through blood. I would not want a loved one of mine to get blood from a high-risk donor. Screening tests can always fail, and AIDS is on the increase.

EVERYONE is a high risk donor.....do you eat out at restaurants? hepatitis is passed all the time.

public health is ALREADY PC on the 'fear factor' ie: flu shots and 'preventative medicine'......

there is testing for the blood....high risk or not, it's irrelevant to claim high/low risk.......

don't worry national healthcare will filter out everyone and we will have a 'mark' in our digital chart that will follow
us everywhere. just like chips in animals in case they are lost and with their vaccine info in them.

like cattle....you see this is an 'argument' FOR digital charts and who will have access....pre-crime medicine

No, some are higher risk than others. Lesbians have a low risk of AIDS. It isn't an anti-gay prejudice, it's medical science.

Quoted from Madam X

No, some are higher risk than others. Lesbians have a low risk of AIDS. It isn't an anti-gay prejudice, it's medical science.

RISK is RISK.....that's like the argument for smaller clips for guns....we have the ability to say (and it doesn't make sense)

"thank goodness they only had seven bullets instead of 10. It could have been 10 dead/maimed instead of 7."

so you may be the poor soul that gets the lesbian blood with low risk but infected. oh well? I don't think so.

Good for you, L4L! And I mean that in a sincere way. I used to donate regularly, but as I've gotten older and have had some nagging, though not serious, health issues, I've kind of used that as an excuse not to do it any more.
I have relatives who aren't supposed to donate, even though they are healthy. If you are in one of the categories where they don't want your blood, and you want to help people, just do something else! Give someone a ride to cancer treatments, something like that.