Questions for you
Have you ever been banned from something? Was there anything you could have done for yourself?
not been rescinded.
Now, the ban was fair in a time of panic and desperation when people did not know how the disease was the ban for
transmitted and had no treatment options for the people living with it. Now though, we have treatment that extends and saves lives, tests that only take 15 minutes to see if you have either of the diseases, and a solid knowledge of how the disease is transmitted and how to prevent yourself from getting it.
Yet, even with all of this new understanding and faster, more accurate testing the FDA says that “FDA's primary responsibility with regard to blood and blood products is to assure the safety of patients who receive these life-saving products….A history of male-to-male sex is associated with an increased risk for exposure to and transmission of certain infectious diseases, including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS….” Now, I will not deny that homosexual men are at high risk for HIV/AIDS, if they engage in high risk behavior such as unprotected sex with multiple partners. That description does not however, apply to every gay man in the United States and it seems like in a time such as this, where blood is high in demand but low in supply, the FDA and should rethink its ban made in a time of terror and ignorance.
Sadly, they have not. Even when presented and petitioned by both regular people and the three biggest blood donation contributors in the United States, American Association of Blood Banks, America’s Blood Centers, and Red Cross, the FDA has still refused to change their policies regarding all of the research and testing has progressed the ban on blood donations from homosexual men has
MSM blood. Now, as said earlier, there have been many breakthroughs in the knowledge and understanding for HIV/AIDS and how it works. If that is true, and the FDA recognizes it, then what is stopping more people from questioning the motives of this ban?
So I seven-stepped the problem and, after considering that point for some time, it became clear to me that the reason this ban was still in place boiled down to two things, or two root causes. Lack of knowledge regarding this ban and all that it entails as well as a lingering fear caused by the possibility of catching this incurable disease. Once I understood that, I realized that considering this ban has been in place for so long now, there must be other people that are aware of both it and the