CarnalNation

Canadian Kyle Freeman is gay, and he doesn't believe that his sexual orientation should prevent him from donating blood. Between 1998 and 2002, Freeman, who is HIV negative, made 18 blood donations to Canadian Blood Services (CBS), but in doing so, he lied on the donor application. Most blood banks throughout the world have banned donations from homosexual men since the 1980s when AIDS-tainted blood was found in the blood supply. If you are a man who has had sex with another man even just once since 1977, you are ineligible to give blood. Freeman was ineligible but donated anyway, so CBS is suing him. Now Freeman is suing back for $250,000 in damages.

The suit and counter suit come to down to some basic questions. Does a blood donor have a duty to report his personal and sexual history? Is banning gay men from donating blood discriminatory, violating constitutional rights to equal protection? If gays and other "high-risk" populations are allowed to donate blood, will the blood supply remain safe? CBS claims that by lying, Freeman took the law and the safety of the recipients of his blood into his own hands. Freeman counters that the exclusion of gays by blood banks is misguided, essentially excluding gays simply for their homosexuality rather than for any behavior that may put them at risk for blood-borne pathogens like HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Routine testing of all donated blood keeps the supply free of blood-borne diseases. Freeman asserts in his lawsuit that blood banks should ask all potential donors about high-risk behavior, such as unprotected sex, and make exclusions based on the behavior rather than the identity of the donor.

After more than 20 years of being banned from blood donation, gay men from all over the world are starting to question the exclusion. For example, a 28-year-old HIV-negative gay man in France has filed formal complaints with the government over the ban and attempted a hunger strike because authorities would not allow him to donate blood or bone marrow. An ongoing case in Australia has blood banks claiming that asking the right questions of gay men to determine if they're eligible to give blood "would take too long." Swedish officials have recently announced that they may drop the blanket ban on gay men from donating blood as early as November. Perhaps these cases as well as the elevation of an openly gay man to the directorship of the Red Cross in Belgium will lead to a system that is both fair, scientific, and safe rather than fear-based and reactionary.