, 92 per cent of gay men said they would donate if the country changed its policy. “It can’t just end with ‘okay, now we’ve changed the rules.’ Great job, but there’s more work to be done, we have to work with those communities, educate about eligibility, showcase the heroism of the donors in those communities because that is something that’s really never been done before.”
“There’s a whole history of barriers with respect to men who have sex with men not being invited, not being included, not being welcomed in the healthcare system, and so there’s going to be a lot of trauma there, there’s going to be a lot of barriers to overcome,” explains Fingrut. Fingrut says many of those who have applied to be donors through Stem Cell Club have expressed “relief” at discovering they can and that, in some cases, even make for perfect candidates based on their ancestry. Part of that involves changing the messaging, spreading the facts, but also raising awareness that not all avenues have barriers and that speaks well for a brighter future.Ĭampaign, which took place this past summer, worked to inform Canadians that gay men are eligible to donate stem cells. In Italy, Mexico, Poland, Latvia, and Spain, criteria is also behaviour-based, and is the same for all donors regardless of sexuality.Īre dedicated to developing the culture around donation and ending the blood ban, respectively. The National Health Service made the change after aīy the FAIR (For the Assessment of Individualised Risk) steering group, which determined an individualized, gender-neutral approach to deciding who can donate blood, platelets, and plasma is fairer and still maintains the safety of the U.K.’s blood supply. whether they’ve been monogamous, practice safe sex). For example, instead of focusing questions on a donor’s sexuality, it asks about their sexual activity (i.e. just this June, is to opt for behaviour-based criteria. It’s an egregious level of judgment, as not all trans people choose surgery for myriad personal reasons, and such interrogation can cause harm during the evaluation process, but also perpetuate transphobia.Īn alternative approach, one that was successfullyīy the U.K. It dictates that donors who have had lower gender affirming surgery will be deferred from donating blood for three months after their surgery, after which they will be screened in their affirmed gender, while donors who have not had lower gender affirming surgery will be asked questions based on their sex assigned at birth and will be eligible to donate based on that. Particularly when you also consider that, in 2016, CBS added anĪdditional screening criteria for trans donors Simply put, it all suggests the ban is based more on stereotypes - which are only being perpetuated - than science. Of those who donated along these rules, none tested positive for HIV. In 2020, it was revealed that when the ban was shifted from a lifetime to five years to one year, it had “no substantial effect whatsoever” and that Health Canada knew these changes would impact only a “small minority” of the ineligible population.
In addition, in documents obtained from Health Canada, Canadian Blood Services, and Héma. To detect HIV within 12 days after infection, while CBS currently estimates the risk of undetected HIV-positive blood being introduced into the blood supply at one in eight million. Of Canadians living with HIV acquired it through heterosexual sex.
Québec have long cited needing more research to disprove the restrictions, but despite there having been much of that over the years, the ban has remained firm.