Even in a pandemic, gay men still aren't allowed to donate blood/plasma/antibodies

[Old Blue]

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/doctors-can-t-use-covid-19-antibodies-gay-men-or-n1174341

[Quincy_7]

The gay community can't have it both ways. You can't refuse to wear condoms and then expect to be allowed to give blood.

[Islesguy]

The gay community can't have it both ways. You can't refuse to wear condoms and then expect to be allowed to give blood.

Except straight men can have sex with random strangers without a condom and not be banned from giving blood. It's ridiculous to think HIV cannot be passed during condomless straight sex.

[marylander1940]

Except straight men can have sex with random strangers without a condom and not be banned from giving blood. It's ridiculous to think HIV cannot be passed during condomless straight sex.

 

Exactly!

 

Besides how many straight men haven't even heard about PrEP and every time they have sex without a condom they know they expose themselves to HIV.

[+ azdr0710]

blood donor restrictions significantly eased......

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/fda-reduces-restrictions-gay-blood-donors-amid-urgent-need-n1175141

[BSR]

Except straight men can have sex with random strangers without a condom and not be banned from giving blood. It's ridiculous to think HIV cannot be passed during condomless straight sex.

 

My old flatmate, who volunteered for the Boston AIDS hotline, told me that risk of HIV transmission is much higher for anal sex than vaginal sex. With vaginal sex, the man risks HIV infection only if his penis has an open cut. Mind you, "open cut" might be a microabrasion that he is unaware of. For anal sex, whether male-female or male-male, the top risks HIV infection no matter what.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

This is the kind of thread where gay self-loathing can be a little too evident.

 

This blood discrimination shit needs to stop. If they're testing it (as they say they do) before sending it out, it's a non-issue.

[Old Blue]

Breaking news: Abstinence before blood donation reduced from 12 to 3 months for gay men. Is this progress?

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/health/fda-blood-donations-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

[Spursy]

Breaking news: Abstinence before blood donation reduced from 12 to 3 months for gay men. Is this progress?

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/health/fda-blood-donations-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

Hey, I'm eligible in about two more months! Almost all of us on this forum are going to qualify before long.

[curiousbynature12]

I don't want to provide my blood out of pettiness. If the government wants people to die due to their homophobia, during a severe blood shortage, that's on them, not me.

 

They need to eliminate the wait period and test the blood.

[+ sniper]

We have a risk of HIV at least an order of magnitude higher than the general population. 3/4 of transmission is still MSM when we are well under 5% of the population. There's more data supporting the MSM ban than there is on a number of the other exclusions(travel to the UK for example).