Roger-Luc Chayer
Since 1992, homosexuals have been prohibited from donating any blood on the pretext that they could potentially be carriers of HIV, as if only gay men could be infected with this disease. In 1992, Canada relaxed its eligibility conditions by allowing gay men to donate blood provided they had had no sexual relations for 5 years, then for 3 years and, since 2019, for 3 months.
These rather ridiculous criteria excluded homosexuals on the basis of their sexual orientation, a ground of discrimination yet prohibited by the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Worse, while we refused the blood of gays, we gladly accepted the blood of prostitutes or any heterosexual.
Now Justin Trudeau’s government, which had made it an election promise, will soon ask Health Canada to remove this discrimination from the list of conditions for being able to donate blood. The decision is logical since with the advent of new treatments against HIV and especially with the treatment of blood, which is heated to destroy any bacteria or virus, the exclusion in question no longer had its place. But is there really much to celebrate within LGBT communities? Not really!
The old rule will be replaced by new criteria regarding the number of partners, their frequency or the nature of sexual acts, and this will not suit many people who may see it as an unwarranted intrusion into their privacy.
For example, on the paper questionnaire that we will give you, we will want to know how many sexual partners you have had for 3 months or 1 year if not more, we will also want to know the frequency of your relationships and the nature of these encounters, such as whether the relationship was anal or involved sex toys. Someone you don’t know will read your answers and decide, based on what you say, if you are an acceptable candidate to donate blood.
Obviously, these questions, which are very intrusive not only for gays, but also for the population in general, could harm rather than help in finding new sources of blood, because it must be said that for years in Canada there has been has a major shortage of blood, and therefore of blood-derived products, which complicates medical care.
Not everyone will likely be very comfortable answering such questions, especially if married people have extramarital affairs, heterosexual men have bisexual affairs, or someone in the clergy has to disclose prohibited sexual activities…
Yet there must be less intrusive solutions to overcome the lack of blood in Canada? And why not replace the criterion based on sexual activity with that of a stable couple, or of a single person on PrEP or on an absence of STIs for at least 3 months, since the objective of this modification is to to have healthy blood, not to know what you are doing in bed, which, moreover, has been a protected act in Canada since Trudeau Sr. blood by people who stayed in France in the 80s. But as with the other criteria, it is subject to confirmation, which I will do once the conditions are established in earnest.