Oregon blood drive canceled over ineligibility of gay men

The Seattle Times ^ | 05/19/2003 | AP

[MikeJ75]

Students at Southern Oregon University (SOU) say they will cancel their blood drive this term because eligibility to donate discriminates against gay men.

Students say that goes against the university's anti-discrimination policy and continues to label AIDS and HIV as a gay men's disease.

David Adkins-Brown, SOU multicultural senator, said that is a misnomer that needs to be eradicated. "From my understanding, it's a rule they made up in the 1980s and people are not up to date," he said.

Guidelines say males who have had homosexual encounters even once since 1977 are ineligible.

[r9etb]

Arthur Ashe died of AIDS that he contracted from an infected blood transfusion.

And what in hell is a "multicultural senator?" Is it university-speak for "stupid, prissy, dumb-sh*t?" (And a bunch of other things I probably shouldn't write....)

[babyface00]

From the article:

"According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, men who have sex with men represent the largest proportion of new HIV infections at 42 percent. Next come heterosexual couples, then intravenous drug users. "

From this thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/904476/posts

"Here's CDC cold hard reality:

Table 27. Estimated adult/adolescent AIDS incidence, by sex, exposure category, and year, of diagnosis, 1996–2001, United States¹

Male adult/adolescent exposure category	Year
	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Men who have sex with men	26,081	20,319	17,315	16,420	15,962	16,453
Injecting drug use	12,804	10,286	8,556	8,111	7,695	7,280
Men who have sex with men and inject drugs	3,479	2,812	2,312	2,111	1,839	1,839
Hemophilia/coagulation disorder2	256	190	151	134	*	*
Heterosexual contact	4,596	4,285	3,981	4,109	4,225	4,555
Receipt of blood transfusion, blood components, or tissue2	281	191	185	175	*	*
Other/risk not reported or identified3	91	81	71	79	384	374
Male subtotal	47,588	38,164	32,571	31,139	30,105	30,501
Female adult/adolescent exposure category
Injecting drug use	5,282	4,448	3,708	3,498	3,540	3,410
Hemophilia/coagulation disorder2	57	55	43	35	*	*
Heterosexual contact	7,570	6,736	6,289	6,265	6,807	7,066
Receipt of blood transfusion, blood components, or tissue2	245	178	167	172	*	*
Other/risk not reported or identified3	63	64	53	56	315	333
Female subtotal	13,217	11,481	10,260	10,026	10,662	10,809
Total4	60,805	49,646	42,832	41,165	40,766	41,311

"

[bigfootbob]

"There are a great deal more exclusions that just homosexual behavior."

Stupid kids. I contracted Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion in 1976 and it wasn't diagnosed until December 2002.

We can't allow our blood supply to become victim of PC insanity. It's just now becoming safe again.

[MikeJ75]

Here is a good article on the subject from the Gay Men's Health Crisis website: http://www.aegis.com/pubs/gmhc/2000/GM141101.html.

According to the article, the interview the donors go through during which they are asked about their sexual practices is not the only screen. But the tests currently performed on all collected blood cannot detect HIV infection incurred within several weeks.

Better tests are on the way, though, which should resolve this issue in a few years. When the new tests are adopted, gay HIV negative men will be allowed to donate blood.

[Chairman Fred]

I'm a six-gallon blood donor, and some of the questions and administrative procedures that blood donors deal with are just absurd. (No, not questions regarding personal hygiene and sexual habits; these are clearly germane. But that fact that it is necessary to deal with these things shows just how far our things have gotten.) All of this because PC is now clearly more important than life itself.

[Texican72]

Blood banks also screen for intravenous drug users, and those that have had sex with them. Is that the next high risk group I'm going to be forced to receive blood from if I need a transfusion?

[js1138]

Translation: I lie to donate blood, thereby possibly contaminating the blood supply with HIV.

The last time I donated I had to sign a consent form to have my blood tested for AIDS. They were experimenting with a new test method. There were, in fact about 50 different disqualifications, including recent travel to certain countries.

[Jaded]

Actually first person I ever knew that had AIDS was a hetrosexual male. He was a hemopheliac(sp) with all kinds of allergies, he had apendicitis and needed blood. He got sick and died with in a year. He probably only worked 2 months before he started getting symptoms. His wife was devistated, many people treated her like a pariah. That was the mid-80's. Funny thing was the hospital that gave him the blood turned them over to a collection agency for non-payment.

[Coeur de Lion]

Very good point. One would think from the money spent on research and trying to find some cure for HIV--as versus the amount of money spent for research into cures for other fatal diseases, which affect far more people on a per capita basis, that HIV was wiping out zillions of folk, even though it's pretty much confined to male homosexuals and intravenous drug users in the United States. And that's still not enough for the gay activists!

As, P.J. Rourke would point out, this is probably on par with the same stupidity which lead to ridiculous solutions, such as spending thousands of dollars in order to put in "skateboard ramps" at a rural post office in which the only wheel-chair bound resident prefers using the rear freight elevator. This is idealism driven to the absurd, which is in itself, absurd!

[circles]

The Haitians must be really peeved byt these kinds of rulings.

[bigfootbob]

Sad. That's why we need to protect the blood source.

[ican'tbelieveit]

15 years to early, or we could have successfully freeped that hospital. Unreal.

[PlutoPlatter]

Hold on there pardner....
there are many Republicans that reside in Oregon it's just that the D-rats hold a slight edge and that is what you hear about all the time.

There is a nice mountain range called the Cascades that divides the state and for the most part the west side is predominately Liberal.

But on the eastern side it is overwhelmingly Conservative.

Here is what you do, instead of traveling through the state on Interstate 5 through the Citys.... travel HWY 97 on the beautiful side of our state. Meet some of the nicest conservative people in the country.

[Rummyfan]

You know.... reflecting on this thread has made me sick. What do these people want? This is truly malignant narcissism (thanks Tammy Bruce). It is more important for gay men not to feel discriminated against than it is to safeguard the blood supply. Unbelievable!

[Night Hides Not]

I've donated off and on over the past 25 years, and up until a year ago, I donated platelets every other month. Unfortunately, I'm unable to donate because I was stationed in Germany from 77-81, and 'exposed' to Mad Cow disease.

With the exception of my two teenagers, who are convinced there is something really wrong with me, I don't feel any worse for the wear, except being 20 lbs overweight.

Can't somebody develop a diagnostic test for this? With one fell swoop, at least 10% of the donors were removed from the pool.

[Mr. Mojo]

Students say that goes against the university's anti-discrimination policy and continues to label AIDS and HIV as a gay men's disease.

God forbid it's labeled for what it is. Some people just can't handle the truth.

If any of these hetero students ever needed a blood transfusion, I wonder if they'd feel at all apprehensive if they knew that the blood they'd be getting was from a gay man who takes sausage up the keister on a daily basis? Freakin' morons.

[philetus]

Students decided that if they can't put AIDS contaminated blood into the system, what was the purpose of having a blood drive.

[dts32041]

I can't give blood cause I was in Europe when the russians had their nuke melt down.

I want to give blood and watch everybody glow in the dark.

[RS]

"I'm a six-gallon blood donor, and some of the questions and administrative procedures that blood donors deal with are just absurd."

Going on 16 for me... and I agree that the screening routine is annoying, but I'd like to know that everyone went through the same thing if I ever need blood.
I keep a list of recent travels in my wallet and just let them copy it all over - saves time for us both.

[Enchante]

Here's my letter-to-the-editor (which I'm sure they will never print):

To the Editor:

Your article about the depraved "politically correct" regime that's ending the blood drives at Southern Oregon University displays for all the world the mindless insanity of the PC-left. There is no 'right' to give blood -- it's a charitable act of life that is quite properly restricted to those people who don't fall into any of a whole list of risk categories. Since there exists no quick, simple, or inexpensive way to safely screen all blood in the blood banks, the only way to ensure a reasonably safe blood supply is to exclude donations from all people who fall into certain risk categories.

As a cancer patient who has recently needed FIVE urgent blood transfusions, I am extremely grateful to all who help to make such blood available. And I especially LOATHE all who make it more difficult for our society to have an ample and safe blood supply; the latter includes such PC-morons as the activists who are making a fuss demanding that gays be allowed to give blood.

Hey, people, the surgical and cancer patients who are desperately receiving that donated blood need to know that they are not merely trading one life-threatening condition for another. Any blood donation agency that failed to exclude donors falling into obvious risk categories would be grossly irresponsible, and would then be a causal agent in the process that led to many more people contracting HIV-AIDS, Hepatitis, etc.

Sincerely,