Gays Banned From Donating Blood, Rational Or Hateful?

In the aftermath of the deadly Orlando shooting on Sunday, where 50 patrons of the Pulse night club, a well known gay club, died, and at least 53 injured, the question that persists is why the victims' own partners and the rest of the gay community cannot donate? 

While some were quick to say this was purely discrimination, what is the real score when it comes to the health perspective?

After the deadly shooting, one Orlando blood bank, OneBlood announced that they were getting an overwhelming number of people wanting to donate blood. Therefore, they asked donors to help over the next several days instead. Thousands of people packed our donor centers and blood drives eager to donate and help replenish the blood supply. Your immediate response to help patients in need was unprecedented and remarkable," it added.

However, the rejoice over this huge outpouring of support was short-lived. Out Magazine tweeted that gay and bisexuals are being restricted from donating blood. So many of those belonging to the LGBT community felt affronted that they cannot even help their own because of this restriction. 

While there are those who claimed that the restriction is meant to discriminate and perpetuate hate, there are also those who said the restriction actually made medical sene.

According to NBC News, the Food and Drug Administration's restrictions were not put into place to discriminate. It is worth noting that the restriction was made not out of the blue, but because back in 2001, more than 14,000 people became infected with HIV through blood transfusions. At the time, this restriction was not in place. 

The ban is meant to prevent the human immune deficiency virus that causes AIDS from affecting the blood supply. In addition, the ban did not say all men who have sex with men can never donate. Last year, the rule was changed to ban only men who have sex with men with another man in the past year.

The scary part about being infected with HIV is that tests cannot even detect infections early. Tests for HIV don't catch very early infections. 

"HIV antibodies may take a few weeks to develop after infection with the virus. If you were recently infected, you might have a negative test result, yet be able to infect the recipient of your donation," the American Red Cross asserted. 

While it may be frustrating for those affected by the Orlando shooting not to do anything for their love ones, the reason behind this ban is also worth remembering. 

There are however, experts who claimed this ban is already outdated. Dr. Paul Volberding, director of the AIDS Research Institute at the University of California San Francisco, claimed that one-year exclusion is already too long. Newer tests can already reveal if someone is infected within a few days only.