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Removing the gay blood ban is not just about eliminating unnecessary discrimination, writes gay rights advocate Michael Cain.
Looking back now, it’s hard to believe I was so naive.
In October 2004, despite being an out gay man, I accompanied a straight friend to the Launceston blood bank, expecting to be able to give ‘the gift of life’.
Instead, I was turned away.
After answering ‘yes’ to the question, ‘Have you had male-to-male sex in the past 12 months?’, I had a meeting with a site nurse who told me that I could not donate due to my answer. I tried to find out more about this strange and unexpected policy but to no avail.
I wrote to the Tasmanian Red Cross manager the next day but never received a reply.
I knew I would need help to sort out what was to me clearly an act of discrimination, so I contacted Rodney Croome at the Tasmanian Gay & Lesbian Rights Group.
Over the next ten months Rodney and I, with aid from the Hobart Community Legal Service, drafted and submitted a claim of discrimination to the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner. She found grounds for possible discrimination and my case was referred on to the Tasmania Anti-Discrimination Tribunal for a full hearing.
That was nearly three years ago. In that time there have been numerous ‘directions hearings’, but I’m confident the case will come to a head soon. The medical experts are lined up, the evidence is collated and a full hearing is scheduled for August.
Lifting the ban on gay blood donation is important for a very simple reason: disease is spread through unsafe sex, not gay sex.
This is why my case argues for a new policy which screens all donors for the safety of their sexual activity rather than the gender of their sexual partner.
Based on the experience of countries where change has already occurred, this policy holds out the promise of not only removing unnecessary discrimination, but of making the blood supply safer and more plentiful.
Supporters of the gay blood ban argue that the majority of people with HIV are gay. What they never add is that the overwhelming majority of gay men do not, and will never, have HIV.
This is because, 20 years after the advent of HIV, we know how to rapidly and accurately test for it and stop its spread. We know that safe sex works. It’s time to apply these important lessons to blood donation.
I’ve learnt a lot since that fateful day four years ago when I suddenly came up against old-fashioned discrimination.
I’ve learnt to do radio interviews, paint banners, write opinion pieces, and generally stand up for my rights.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is my desire to see Australia have a safer and more abundant supply of blood, and for gay Australians to be able to give ‘the gift of life’.
Michael Cain is based in Launceston, Tasmania.
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