Canada finally lifts archaic, homophobic ban on queer men donating blood
MAGGIE BASKA APRIL 28, 2022
PINK NEWS
Health Canada authorised Canadian Blood Services to lift restrictions on blood donations from queer men. (Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty)
Health Canada has lifted the antiquated ban on blood donations from queer men and others within the LGBT+ community.
The government department – which is responsible for national health policies in Canada – released a statement on Thursday (28 April) that it authorised a request from Canadian Blood Services to lift the restrictions on blood donations from men who had sex with men in the last three months.
The new policy, which goes into effect on 30 September, will screen all potential donors – regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation – for high-risk sexual behaviours.
As such, Canadian Blood Services will bring forward a new donor-screening process to anyone interested in giving blood and plasma, which will include a sexual behaviour-based questionnaire.
“Today’s authorisation is a significant milestone toward a more inclusive blood donation system nationwide, and builds on progress in scientific evidence made in recent years,” Health Canada said.
Health Canada has authorised several changes to the restrictions on blood donated by members of the LGBT+ community. The regulator dropped the outright ban on gay, bisexual and queer men donating blood down to five years in 2013, to one year in 2016 and to three months in 2019.
Health Canada added that this latest change was based on a “thorough assessment of evidence supporting the safety of the revised donor screening”, and it had met with a “group of scientific and medical experts” in the field of blood safety for a meeting on 13 April.
Dr Graham Sher, CEO of Canadian Blood Services, said the approval of their request to remove the eligibily criteria for queer men is the “result of a over a decade of work to make participation in Canada’s Lifeline as inclusive as possible” without risking safety or the security of supply.
“Numerous 2SLGBTQIA+ and other stakeholder groups, researchers and Canadian Blood Services employees have contributed countless hours to this effort over the years,” Sher said. “This could not have happened without their hard work.”
Canadian Blood Services – which operates in all provinces and territories except for Quebec – said the new screening criteria will ask any donor if they’ve had “new or multiple sexual partners in the last three months”.
If the answer is ‘yes’, the service will ask if the person had anal sex with any of these partners, and the individual may be required to wait three months in order to donate blood and plasma.
“While this eligibility change represents a significant step on our continual journey to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive national transfusion and transplantation system, we still have considerable work to do to build trust and repair relationships with 2SLGBTQIA+ communities,” Sher added.
Michael Kwag – acting executive director of Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC), a non-profit that champions the health of LGBT+ people in Canada – said lifting the blood donation ban means Canada is “finally catching up to other countries”, which already operated with a gender-neutral approach to donor screenings.
“Health Canada’s original policy was discriminatory and encouraged stigma and ignorance around queer men’s and trans people’s health,” Kwag said. “It also undermined Canada’s blood supply, which can run precariously low.”
But CBRC said that more work needed to be done as the original donation policy “contributed to the stigmatising idea that gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men are inherently unsafe”. As such, the non-profit said Canadian Blood Services must engaged in “public education campaigns to dispel stereotypes” and “fight misconceptions about our communities”.
Canadian Blood Services promised to spend the next couple of months preparing to implement the new inclusive blood donation criteria. This includes updating systems and processes as well as training staff.
The move puts Canada in line with many other countries – including Britain, France, Hungary and Greece – that have eased or eliminated their homophobic blood bans in recent years.
Canada lifts restrictions on gay men's blood donationsMAGGIE BASKA APRIL 28, 2022
PINK NEWS
Health Canada authorised Canadian Blood Services to lift restrictions on blood donations from queer men. (Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty)
Health Canada has lifted the antiquated ban on blood donations from queer men and others within the LGBT+ community.
The government department – which is responsible for national health policies in Canada – released a statement on Thursday (28 April) that it authorised a request from Canadian Blood Services to lift the restrictions on blood donations from men who had sex with men in the last three months.
The new policy, which goes into effect on 30 September, will screen all potential donors – regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation – for high-risk sexual behaviours.
As such, Canadian Blood Services will bring forward a new donor-screening process to anyone interested in giving blood and plasma, which will include a sexual behaviour-based questionnaire.
“Today’s authorisation is a significant milestone toward a more inclusive blood donation system nationwide, and builds on progress in scientific evidence made in recent years,” Health Canada said.
Health Canada has authorised several changes to the restrictions on blood donated by members of the LGBT+ community. The regulator dropped the outright ban on gay, bisexual and queer men donating blood down to five years in 2013, to one year in 2016 and to three months in 2019.
Health Canada added that this latest change was based on a “thorough assessment of evidence supporting the safety of the revised donor screening”, and it had met with a “group of scientific and medical experts” in the field of blood safety for a meeting on 13 April.
Dr Graham Sher, CEO of Canadian Blood Services, said the approval of their request to remove the eligibily criteria for queer men is the “result of a over a decade of work to make participation in Canada’s Lifeline as inclusive as possible” without risking safety or the security of supply.
“Numerous 2SLGBTQIA+ and other stakeholder groups, researchers and Canadian Blood Services employees have contributed countless hours to this effort over the years,” Sher said. “This could not have happened without their hard work.”
Canadian Blood Services – which operates in all provinces and territories except for Quebec – said the new screening criteria will ask any donor if they’ve had “new or multiple sexual partners in the last three months”.
If the answer is ‘yes’, the service will ask if the person had anal sex with any of these partners, and the individual may be required to wait three months in order to donate blood and plasma.
“While this eligibility change represents a significant step on our continual journey to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive national transfusion and transplantation system, we still have considerable work to do to build trust and repair relationships with 2SLGBTQIA+ communities,” Sher added.
Michael Kwag – acting executive director of Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC), a non-profit that champions the health of LGBT+ people in Canada – said lifting the blood donation ban means Canada is “finally catching up to other countries”, which already operated with a gender-neutral approach to donor screenings.
“Health Canada’s original policy was discriminatory and encouraged stigma and ignorance around queer men’s and trans people’s health,” Kwag said. “It also undermined Canada’s blood supply, which can run precariously low.”
But CBRC said that more work needed to be done as the original donation policy “contributed to the stigmatising idea that gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men are inherently unsafe”. As such, the non-profit said Canadian Blood Services must engaged in “public education campaigns to dispel stereotypes” and “fight misconceptions about our communities”.
Canadian Blood Services promised to spend the next couple of months preparing to implement the new inclusive blood donation criteria. This includes updating systems and processes as well as training staff.
The move puts Canada in line with many other countries – including Britain, France, Hungary and Greece – that have eased or eliminated their homophobic blood bans in recent years.
Health Canada announces a lifting of restrictions on blood donations by gay and bisexual men (AFP/GEORGES GOBET) (GEORGES GOBET)
Thu, April 28, 2022,
Canada announced Thursday a lifting of restrictions on blood donations by gay and bisexual men that dates back to HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.
Instead, donors will be screened for high-risk sexual behaviours, regardless of gender or sexuality.
"Under the new screening approach, Canadian Blood Services will introduce a sexual behaviour-based donor-screening questionnaire that will apply to all donors of blood and plasma," the health department said in a statement.
The policy change -- to be implemented by September -- marks "a significant milestone toward a more inclusive blood donation system," it said.
This follows several changes to the blood donation regime over the past decade that saw deferral periods for donations by gay men progressively lowered from a lifetime ban to three months in 2019.
This meant at the time that men who had sex with men could not donate blood if they'd had sex during the period prior to the donation.
For years, advocates said the policy was discriminatory and not based on science.
Research cited by Health Canada said current risks of contracting HIV from the blood supply, with all samples tested, was estimated to be "very low," at 1 in 20.7 million.
It noted also that no HIV positive donations had been made in recent years.
The outright ban on gay men donating blood had been introduced in 1992 after a tainted blood scandal that saw thousands of Canadians infected with HIV after receiving transfusions.
The Canadian Red Cross, which handled blood donations at the time, had failed to properly test and screen donors.
As many as 8,000 Canadians died, according to a public inquiry. And Canadian media reported at the time that people in Japan, Germany and Britain were also infected by blood products sent abroad.
France, Spain, Italy, Israel and Britain have similarly moved recently to loosen restrictions on blood donations.
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