UWO students protest campus blood drive
In reaction to Canadian Blood Services policy on donations from gay men, a group of UWO students took part in a protest against a blood donor clinic on Western's campus.
The group, Standing Against Queer Discrimination, were speaking out against the CBS in regards to their perceived discrimination against gay men donating blood to the drive. The group organized the protest for November 9, but were shocked to find campus security waiting for the group and barring any media from the event. Western's reaction to the protest only managed to draw more media attention to the protesters, who now claim that their attempt to curtail free-speech was an infringement of their rights.
“The CBS is clearly discriminatory,” said Joshua Ferguson, one of the SADQ founders. “It discriminates against men who have sex with men, and our group is trying to inform people of the damaging affects of these forms of discrimination that lead to homophobia in society, which is why it's so important that it gets changed.”
The changes Ferguson mentioned have to do with two particular questions asked of everyone who donates blood. The first question, “Are you a man who has had sex with another man since 1977,” results in a lifetime deferral from being able to donate blood. The second, “Are you a woman who has had sex with a man who has had sex with another man just once since 1977,” leads to only a temporary deferral based on when the woman last had sex with the male partner in question.
“So you can really see how discriminatory it is,” explained Ferguson. “And it's also a form of institutionalized discrimination because they're a federally funded institution in Canada.”
Following a ban on Héma Québec, a CBS affiliate, at McGill University, the McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment Report commissioned by the CBS found that changing the deferral to five-years as opposed to indefinite would no make any significant impact on the blood quality.
“They've decided to maintain their policy,” said Ferguson. “It's really frustrating because the epidemic has changed and the questions need to reflect these changes.”
The epidemic Ferguson is referring to is HIV, and according to statistics given to him by the Options Clinic, the only anonymous HIV testing clinic in London, 50 per cent of new HIV cases are heterosexual women, as opposed to only 33 per cent in gay men. The numbers are, he continued, are flipping because when the original policy was implemented gay men accounted for the majority of new HIV cases.
“It's not an easy process to change,” said Cindy Graham, CBS's southern Ontario regional communications manager. “We're regulated by Health Canada, which means anything we do, we have to get their approval. So what we're in the process of doing is getting research, and it's not just simple research, it comes down to what questions we ask, and how we ask them.”
Graham explained that CBS is a new organization that was created in the late nineties after there were problems with the blood being handled by the Canadian Red Cross that led to people being infected with AIDS and Hepatitis. At that point Health Canada decided that creating a separate body to monitor the Canadian blood supply, one that could focus entirely on the matter, was in order. But it took a lot of work to get the population to trust them again.
“10-years ago people didn't trust the blood services,” Graham continued. “We have a lot of rules and regulations in place to make sure that the blood is the safest it can be and because of that now they have regained that trust in the people are running it.”
On the subject of HIV she stressed that it's not that CBS isn't working hard to change their mandate, it's that to do so they have to go through Health Canada, who are notoriously picky when it comes to changing regulations.
“This last spring the Board of Directors looked at the McLaughlin report,” Graham said. “They said that yes they agree that this policy needs to be reviewed, but that we're not going to make changes to it right now because we need to ensure that we can get the changes made by Health Canada first.
“So they gave the mandate to CBS to look at and do the research, so we now have a mandate to make the changes.”
But one thing the two sides can agree on is that the CBS needs more donors, and by changing the regulations to reflect new scientific research that may include the gay male populations would definitely give that goal a boost.
“Our objective is to get them to change the questionnaire to reflect ‘risky sexual behaviour' as opposed to grouping people together,” explained Ferguson. “Just asking if you've had unprotected sex to everyone, not just gay men.
“Because if gay men who practice safe sex can donate, then the blood supply will be increased.”
Fanshawe College, who just had a blood donor clinic last week, will be hosting the next blood drive on November 23 in R Building.
The group, Standing Against Queer Discrimination, were speaking out against the CBS in regards to their perceived discrimination against gay men donating blood to the drive. The group organized the protest for November 9, but were shocked to find campus security waiting for the group and barring any media from the event. Western's reaction to the protest only managed to draw more media attention to the protesters, who now claim that their attempt to curtail free-speech was an infringement of their rights.
“The CBS is clearly discriminatory,” said Joshua Ferguson, one of the SADQ founders. “It discriminates against men who have sex with men, and our group is trying to inform people of the damaging affects of these forms of discrimination that lead to homophobia in society, which is why it's so important that it gets changed.”
The changes Ferguson mentioned have to do with two particular questions asked of everyone who donates blood. The first question, “Are you a man who has had sex with another man since 1977,” results in a lifetime deferral from being able to donate blood. The second, “Are you a woman who has had sex with a man who has had sex with another man just once since 1977,” leads to only a temporary deferral based on when the woman last had sex with the male partner in question.
“So you can really see how discriminatory it is,” explained Ferguson. “And it's also a form of institutionalized discrimination because they're a federally funded institution in Canada.”
Following a ban on Héma Québec, a CBS affiliate, at McGill University, the McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment Report commissioned by the CBS found that changing the deferral to five-years as opposed to indefinite would no make any significant impact on the blood quality.
“They've decided to maintain their policy,” said Ferguson. “It's really frustrating because the epidemic has changed and the questions need to reflect these changes.”
The epidemic Ferguson is referring to is HIV, and according to statistics given to him by the Options Clinic, the only anonymous HIV testing clinic in London, 50 per cent of new HIV cases are heterosexual women, as opposed to only 33 per cent in gay men. The numbers are, he continued, are flipping because when the original policy was implemented gay men accounted for the majority of new HIV cases.
“It's not an easy process to change,” said Cindy Graham, CBS's southern Ontario regional communications manager. “We're regulated by Health Canada, which means anything we do, we have to get their approval. So what we're in the process of doing is getting research, and it's not just simple research, it comes down to what questions we ask, and how we ask them.”
Graham explained that CBS is a new organization that was created in the late nineties after there were problems with the blood being handled by the Canadian Red Cross that led to people being infected with AIDS and Hepatitis. At that point Health Canada decided that creating a separate body to monitor the Canadian blood supply, one that could focus entirely on the matter, was in order. But it took a lot of work to get the population to trust them again.
“10-years ago people didn't trust the blood services,” Graham continued. “We have a lot of rules and regulations in place to make sure that the blood is the safest it can be and because of that now they have regained that trust in the people are running it.”
On the subject of HIV she stressed that it's not that CBS isn't working hard to change their mandate, it's that to do so they have to go through Health Canada, who are notoriously picky when it comes to changing regulations.
“This last spring the Board of Directors looked at the McLaughlin report,” Graham said. “They said that yes they agree that this policy needs to be reviewed, but that we're not going to make changes to it right now because we need to ensure that we can get the changes made by Health Canada first.
“So they gave the mandate to CBS to look at and do the research, so we now have a mandate to make the changes.”
But one thing the two sides can agree on is that the CBS needs more donors, and by changing the regulations to reflect new scientific research that may include the gay male populations would definitely give that goal a boost.
“Our objective is to get them to change the questionnaire to reflect ‘risky sexual behaviour' as opposed to grouping people together,” explained Ferguson. “Just asking if you've had unprotected sex to everyone, not just gay men.
“Because if gay men who practice safe sex can donate, then the blood supply will be increased.”
Fanshawe College, who just had a blood donor clinic last week, will be hosting the next blood drive on November 23 in R Building.
