Source: Canada.com and CBC News
Student groups are pressing Canadian Blood Services to end the agency's blood donor ban on sexually active gay men, despite the agency's 2007 decision to stick with the status quo.

Canadian Federation of Students spokeswoman Amanda Aziz said the policy is outdated, discriminatory and needs to be changed.

"I think that it's a form of institutionalized discrimination," said Aziz, the federation's national chairperson.

Several student groups and gay rights activists say they're particularly concerned about Canadian Blood Services' lifetime ban against blood donations from gay men. Their concerns largely stem from sections of a lengthy questionnaire potential donors need to fill out.

Question No. 18 of the blood agency's questionnaire asks potential male donors if they have had sex with a man, even once since 1977. If the answer is yes, even if the person has practised safe sex and is in a monogamous relationship, he or she is instantly deemed ineligible to donate.

"It makes people believe that, yes, gay men are likely to have HIV, likely to have AIDS," Andrew Brett, advocacy and outreach co-ordinator at the University of Toronto's student union in Mississauga, told CBC News. "It kind of makes it official, and it's like official discrimination."

The student federation doesn't condone banning blood drives on campuses although Brett noted that some student groups, including at York University in Toronto, have done so in the past.

Lorna Tessier, director of public relations with Canadian Blood Services in Ottawa, said she hasn't heard of any cancellations. "We collect regularly at those sites," she told CBC News on Wednesday.

The national student group decided to press the issue in 2006 and the cause has been taken up by universities across the country, most notably at University of Toronto and McGill University, Brett said.

Canadian Blood Services admits other countries have much more flexible policies. Italy has focused its donor screening questions around behaviour and Australia only rejects men who have had sex with men in the previous year, said agency spokeswoman Anne Trueman. The agency decided it was safest to keep the lifetime ban on men who've had sex with men after concluding a review last year, but continues to study the issue.

An independent risk assessment done for the agency by the University of Ottawa's McLaughlin Centre for Population concluded the one-year option was too risky.

Gay rights advocacy group EGALE Canada said its beef was not with Canadian Blood Services but with Health Canada, which they say is calling the shots on the issue.

EGALE executive director Helen Kennedy said it makes no sense that Ontario's Health Minister George Smitherman, who is gay, can't donate blood.

"We feel that Health Canada is the villain in this instance," said Kennedy.

Health Canada spokeswoman Carole Saindon said the department's position is "science-based."

Dr. Steven Klinman, senior medical advisor with the American Association of Blood Banks, said that a lifetime ban isn't necessary because HIV testing is so accurate now. But he said recent sex between men still presents a risk blood agencies can't ignore.

Full article: Students continue to fight blood donor ban against gay men
Student unions shun blood drives, citing discriminatory screening | CBC.ca