Posted on 02/20/2026 7:21:16 AM PST by fwdude
PANAMA CITY - Luis, a 26-year-old Panamanian man, has tried to donate blood four times in his life. The first time he was rejected. The other three times, he was allowed to do it only because he hid the fact that he has a boyfriend.
"I felt dirty, as if I was sick," Luis said of his first attempt to give blood to an ailing family member. He used a pseudonym because he feared the legal implications of breaching Panama's rules banning gay and bisexual men from donating blood.
Many countries, including Panama, introduced blood donation controls in the 1980s early in the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
But the COVID-19 pandemic saw severe blood shortages worldwide when lockdowns meant people could not donate blood.
Since then, several countries from the United States and Germany to Britain and Australia have lifted or relaxed policies restricting gay and bisexual donors, arguing that technology to check blood for potential issues has improved.
Activists have long said bans and restrictions on LGBTQ+ donors were outdated and stigmatising.
But Panama, a Central American country of 4.5 million inhabitants, has maintained its restrictions, creating a dilemma for LGBTQ+ individuals who want to help sick friends, family members and fellow citizens.
Last year, Luis had to lie again to provide blood for a family friend in hospital.
"I panicked when I got to the hospital, because I suddenly remembered I have a Pride flag tattoo on my left arm, so I begged them to use the right one," Luis told Context.
"I felt under surveillance."
'Lack of progress'
In 2008, Panama became the last country to decriminalise same-sex relations in Latin America. Since then, there has been little progress on LGBTQ+ rights.
Gay and lesbian couples are not legally recognised, the internal rules of the national police classify homosexuality as a "grave offense" punishable with dismissal, and LGBTQ+ people are not protected from discrimination in education, healthcare or the workplace.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2023 same-sex marriage was not a constitutional right in response to challenges by couples who sought to have their marriages performed abroad recognised in Panama.
"The lack of legislative and judicial progress shows that Panama is not ready to recognise LGBTI people's rights," said Iván Chanis, president of Fundación Iguales, an LGBTQ+ group.
He and his brother, also a gay man, were barred from donating blood when their mother had to undergo a life-or-death operation.
Scientists say bans not only discriminate against LGBTQ+ people but also pose a threat to healthcare systems by excluding healthy donors.
Panama's blood supply is organised primarily through a network of public and private hospital-based blood banks, rather than a single, centralised national service. The system relies on a mix of voluntary and replacement donations.
Replacement donations, in which relatives or friends give blood to patients undergoing surgery or treatment, are common, but health authorities say a transition to regular voluntary blood donation would reduce chronic shortages.
The health ministry said in January blood banks were in a critical situation, with supply below 40% of capacity.
"If you are relying on a real scientific criterion, you should evaluate a potential donor based on their individual sexual behaviour - whether it's risky or not," said Macarena de la Rubia, president of Fundación Dona Vida, a non-profit working to boost blood donations in Panama.
Some HIV blood tests can now detect infection within two weeks of exposure.
"As things stand today, it does not make sense to treat all homosexual and bisexual men as people with risky behaviour," de la Rubia said.
She said Panama faces especially severe blood shortages from November to March during nationwide Christmas and Carnival celebrations.
Panama's health ministry did not respond to several requests for comment. Increasing donations
Lifting restrictions widens the pool of potential donors, although it is hard to quantify whether the policy changes in other countries have led to a surge in blood donations from gay and bisexual men, because many of the nations that have taken this step no longer ask donors about their sexual orientation.
"However, we have seen a positive response, with many newly eligible individuals now working with us to give blood, host blood drives and volunteer at blood drives," said Daniel Parra, media relations lead at the American Red Cross.
In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) replaced screening questions targeted at men who have sex with men with a gender inclusive, individual risk based questionnaire for all donors.
"Since implementing the FDA's individual donor assessment, more than 10% of individuals in our system who had previously been unable to give under the prior policy, and who we informed of the change, have returned to donate blood with the Red Cross," Parra said.
"And more than 60% of these individuals who have returned have donated multiple times since the change." Weight of stigma
For gay and bisexual Panamanians, the ban reinforces existing stigma around homosexuality and HIV in a country where conservative groups have long opposed efforts to include sex education in schools.
"The fact that a policy says you are permanently excluded and that you will forever be a high-risk person really weighs on us," said Ángel Garay, a 25-year-old Panamanian man who was rejected when he tried to donate blood for his sick uncle.
"But what hurt me the most was that a family member needed my help, and I could not do anything to help him."
Panama has never had openly LGBTQ+ lawmakers, and very few members of parliament have publicly supported legal changes in favour of this minority.
In 2023, an MP brought forward a proposal to revoke the blood ban, but parliament was dissolved for a 2024 election before a vote.
For Chanis, the policy is simply no longer fit for purpose.
"Science has already moved forward," he said.
Disease vectors. Their obsession with the psychic effects of stimulation of the sex organs have led them to be polluted by many infectious and contagious organisms. Will any sexually promiscuous (including heteros )person ever learn?
Or is the cost of “doing business” a reservoir of diseases embedded in the human population forever?
You can deter some lying (crime in general) by increasing the “cost” of lying.
Bingo!! If there were serious criminal penalties for lying on a blood donor questionnaire, at least they would think more than twice about it.
Personally, I think any presenting donor who tests positive for HIV or any of the common sexually transmitted diseases should be criminally investigated for how they slipped through the cracks of the well-composed questionnaire which should have screened out any incidences of these diseases, if answered honestly.
The Gay Panamanians! Wasn’t that a Disney cartoon?
And you never felt dirty when you had that inside your mouth?
Or your anus?
You SHOULD feel dirty.
They do ask about cancer. Not all cancers disqualify someone from donating. I have never seen anything about an upper age limit—but they do know your date of birth. I don’t think I would be allowed to donate in Europe because of my age, but hope to keep donating at least until I have completed 20 gallons. 19 so far.
When did their feelings become more important than the safety of the blood supply for vulnerable patients? Yeah, it is a rhetorical question.
Buddy
If you have a “boyfriend “ then you are dirty
“I felt dirty”.
Well...
I remember the news stories during the COVID crisis of transgendered Panamanians feeling (gasp) stigmatized over temporary rules that said women could only shop on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays while men could only shop on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. AP and others ran stories about how terrible it was for their widdle feewings.
Sticking your pecker in a septic porta potty is dirty, filthy, and disgusting.
Well, Luis, you are dirty and you are sick.
“I felt dirty, as if I was sick,”
Bingo, pervert. You’ll never escape the feeling either. It come from the inside.
“I felt dirty, as if I was sick,” Luis said”
You feel that way because you are.
No, I think it was a Busby Berkeley movie.
You are dirty, and full of feces and other diseases already, I am sure.
I was rejected because I was too thin and my blood pressure was to low. (I miss back when.) My husband could not give for a long time because he had lived in Europe.
You know what we did?
We got on with life.
I swear some people go around looking for things to whine about. And most of those people seem to be fags.
And my care level is in the cellar and digging.
Song
I feel dirty
I feel dirty
I feel dirty and flirty and gay
Oh so dirty
That disease holds all my blood at bay.🩸
HIV infection causes the infected to prematurely age 14 years and, I assume, prematurely die 14 years early. I now presume Panamanians are going to start dying 14 years early. To read more, check keyword hivaging.
Yes fudge stands out under a microscope.
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