With their passage of a resolution calling for the reversal of the federal ban of gay and bisexual male blood donors, the Chicago City Council’s Health Committee last week joined a growing number of influential entities that have spoken out against the policy.
The policy, which has been on the books since 1985, bars any man who admits to having engaged in sexual activity with another man at any point since 1977 from donating blood for life. Gay Chicago alderman Tom Tunney and other pro-repeal advocates claim the ban perpetuates negative stereotypes of gay men as "public health threats" and could even threaten the nation’s blood supply in the not-so-distant future. Already this year, city councils in New York and Washington, D.C., have also called for an end to the ban, as did the California Assembly’s Judiciary Committee in 2009.
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What about donating bone marrow?... If there's a match and I'm a low risk msm would it be an opportunity to save that person's life?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the National Marrow Donor Program, found at www.marrow.org, "men who have had sex with other men within the past 5 years are currently not eligible to join the Be The Match Registry® as a potential marrow donor."
ReplyDeleteAccording to their website: http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Med_Guidelines_Join/Men_Who_Have_Sex_with_Men/index.html, "this [exclusion] is because men who have sex with other men are, as a group, at increased risk for HIV."