If you’re a sexually active gay or bisexual man, or trans, you can’t donate blood right now in Australia.
That’s nothing new.
Gay and bisexual men were banned from giving blood during the HIV and AIDS crisis that gripped the world in the 1980s.
The total ban became a 12 month celibacy period a few years later and earlier this year that was reduced even further, meaning men who have sex with men now need to wait three months since their last sexual contact with a man before they can donate.
But Rodney Croome from national LGBTQI+ advocacy organisation just.equal doesn’t think there should be any “deferral” period in place at all.
“I’d like to see an entirely new policy that focuses on individual risk,” Rodney told Hack.
It’s an idea being embraced by other countries around the world.
The UK recently announced it’s scrapping its three month postponement for gay and bisexual men who have had the same sexual partner for more than three months.
It’s being replaced with an individualised risk assessment that would mean anyone who wants to donate blood would be asked questions about their sexual behaviour.
Rodney Croome thinks that makes sense.
“The overwhelming majority of gay and bisexual men in Australia don’t have HIV and will never have HIV because we practise safe sex or because we’re in monogamous relationships,” he said.
“We’re at very low risk. In fact, much lower risk than many people who are currently able to donate, like many heterosexual people.
France, Italy and Spain, are also part of a group of more than a dozen countries that have removed barriers for men who have sex with men in recent years.
The US could be about to relax its rules too, with a pilot study looking into individualised risk assessments now underway.
Research carried out in countries that have moved towards individualised risk assessments has found the risk of sexually transmitted infections entering the blood supply does not increase.
The UK government has hailed what it calls a “world leading, safe option” that recognises individuals for the actions they take “rather than their sexual preference”.
Rodney says we need to be seeing similar progress in Australia because the current rules around blood donation are damaging to gay and bisexual men.
“There’s a stereotype of gay men that we’re somehow more prone to disease, that we’re somehow more likely to be a threat to the health of others,” he said.
“That’s a long term stigma that LGBTQI+ people have had to bear and I don’t think we should bear it any longer. It’s just not true.”
‘I felt so small’
Daniel Cottier was turned away when he tried to donate blood in New South Wales earlier this year.
As a gay man, he followed the rules and gave up sex three months before presenting for his donation.
But when he got to the clinic he found out that he still wasn’t eligible to give blood because he had taken the HIV preventative medication PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) within the last 12 months.
He couldn’t find that information on the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood website.
“I just sat in the office and had a big cry,” he said.
“I said to the nurse, this really sucks.
“I felt so small. I felt a real sense of shame about myself and who I was and who I loved. And that’s really common in the queer community, to feel ashamed of yourself, for being who you are.”
Daniel later got an apology from Lifeblood and they have updated their website to make it clear that under the current restrictions if you are a gay man who uses PrEP, you have to wait a year since your last dose before you can donate.
‘It’s not the safest approach for Australia’
Lifeblood says its policy considers an assessment of risk, and does not discriminate against anyone.
Chief medical officer Joanne Pink says the three month celibacy rule is in place because testing is often not able to pick up early infections.
And the rule around PrEP is in place because there is evidence to show that it impacts the ability of tests to pick up early HIV infection.
Dr Pink says individualised risk assessments that are being introduced in other countries rely on a more even distribution of new HIV infections across the population which Australia doesn’t have.
“We concluded that this approach would likely reduce blood safety if it were implemented in Australia,” she told Hack.
“Eighty four per cent of all newly acquired cases of HIV in Australia are attributed to men who have sex with men.
“This means that we establish whether groups of people who engage in certain activities and behaviours have a higher risk of exposure to a blood borne infection.
“It’s a bit like sending a whole suburb into COVID lockdown.
“We ask groups of people to do things to keep us all safe.”
But Rodney Croome believes the evidence is increasingly showing the advantages of reducing restrictions for gay, bi and trans people and the change would benefit more than just those communities.
“The more important reason is that it means that there will be a greater quantity of safe blood available for those Australians in need.
“So let’s remove these old barriers to full participation in community life.”
