Community-Based Research Centre<\/a>, about how these changes fall short and what still needs to be done. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter the most recent round of policy changes this year, nearly every headline seemed to imply the blood ban was over. How accurate is this? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s definitely true in some sense. For decades, we had a ban specifically preventing men who have sex with men from donating blood. And so the change that really everyone is talking about is the move to a gender-neutral approach. I think the other thing is that historically, we\u2019ve had many different screening questions that deterred people from donating who are part of many different queer communities. It\u2019s important that we celebrate that because the MSM policy was problematic, in that it treated any sex between men the same way; it was also problematic because it really did impose this gender-binary system, which made it difficult for trans folks and non-binary folks to navigate the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the blood ban goes beyond screening questions. For instance, Blood Services will still use an international software system that only has male or female designations. That means non-binary people will still have to be entered into the system as either male or female, for example. So it\u2019s not like every issue is necessarily solved with a change in policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My main message is that we should celebrate, because this year\u2019s changes do recognize the years and years of advocacy work and research work. But the fight is certainly not over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So who exactly is still barred from giving blood? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Any donor, regardless of their biological sex, gender identity or relationship structure, is asked whether they\u2019ve had a new sexual partner in the last three months, or if they\u2019ve had multiple sexual partners in the past three months. If you haven\u2019t had a new sexual partner in the last three months, or you have only had a single sexual partner in the last three months, then you won\u2019t be asked about anal sex. If you have multiple sexual partners, or a new sexual partner, then you will be asked if you\u2019ve had anal sex with any of those partners, and if you have, then your donation would be deferred by three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know that anal sex is most common amongst gay men and other members of the LGBTQ2S+ community\u2014but we also know that that many other people have anal sex. We know anal sex has a higher likelihood of transmission of HIV than other forms of sex that people can have. And so that\u2019s part of why the focus is no longer your gender or your sexual orientation or even your biological sex, really. All donors are asked if they\u2019ve had multiple partners, or anal sex with those partners. And then if they say yes to either of those questions, they’ll get asked if they\u2019re living with HIV, if they have had sex with someone who’s living with HIV, if they are a sex worker or if they are taking PrEP. All of these are grounds for a deferral. So there are still a lot of parts of our community that aren\u2019t able to donate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How could these questions and policies be further changed to help with that? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
There are many places where we can still make changes. And it\u2019s important that it\u2019s not just for the sake of anti-discrimination and anti-stigma. This is also about creating a safe blood supply, where we can have sufficient blood available for any of us who need it. We know that lots of people in queer communities need blood and it\u2019s not like these are exclusive communities, either. There are hemophiliacs who are bisexual men, for example. And at the end of the day, we want to make sure that there\u2019s safe and sufficient blood available for any of us whenever we need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What could a sufficient, medically accurate de-stigmatized system look like?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
To me it\u2019s about looking at [whether] all of these new questions are fully necessary? Are any of them redundant? Sometimes we might have multiple questions that are getting at the same thing, for instance, asking redundant questions about previous sexual partners in addition to questions about sex work. So that\u2019s definitely one place to start\u2014are there some questions we could reduce or remove?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then we have to have more specificity. For instance, we know that HIV-positive people with undetectable viral loads are unable to transmit the virus, but our deferral policy doesn\u2019t reflect that. We also don\u2019t ask any questions about condom use or protection, which are very important factors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s also a possibility that we can reduce the period of time people are turned away for. I think those are kind of the frontiers where advocacy needs to continue. The big thing I\u2019ll say is, it\u2019s important to remember that white gay men are one part of the LGBTQ2S+ community, but the people who are deferred in this policy are not just white gay men. We also have deferrals around sex work, we have deferrals around injection drug use, we\u2019ve had deferrals for living with HIV. And so we need to really think intersectionally. Who is going to benefit and be able to donate, and who continues to be marginalized and excluded from the system? And again, the key thing is making sure that people who would be safe donors are able to donate, because that\u2019s integral to making sure people can get what they need in terms of blood products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How much is systemic queerphobia an obstacle to these changes, and how will advocates navigate that? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
I think that it\u2019s broader\u2014in some ways it\u2019s just about sexual stigma. To me, it\u2019s okay if people feel some discomfort in the blood donor process \u2026 if people feel a bit of discomfort being asked about things like condom use, that\u2019s okay\u2014it\u2019s in the name of science and safety. It\u2019s better for us to ask something specific than it is for us to kind of gloss over and say, \u201cOh, you\u2019re a man who has sex with men, and I don\u2019t want to know any details about the kinds of sex you have.\u201d In reality, not all sex is created equal in terms of HIV transmission. So I think that specificity part is hard because we\u2019re pushing against actual sexual stigma and conservativism. But as we create a better and clearer rationale about why we\u2019re asking certain questions during the screening process, science will benefit the advocacy because our advocacy is evidence-based. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, we need to acknowledge the intersection with racial and other forms of discrimination. We\u2019ve had bans in place against certain African communities, for instance. So we can\u2019t just change a policy, and then do nothing else to repair the harm that was caused for years and years. We\u2019re not operating in a neutral space. We need to think about what else needs to be done at a societal level, to make sure that the damage that was done through stigmatizing people unnecessarily for years is reversed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What are the next steps for LGBTQ2S+ allies and advocates? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
In some way, the media created this narrative that the ban is over. And as I said before, it\u2019s really not. There\u2019s still lots left to be done, and it\u2019s important that those of us who can donate now don\u2019t stop caring about this issue. Solidarity within our community and across communities is important now more than ever, because it\u2019s really only through that pressure, that we get the necessary scientific research, apologies and policy changes to happen. It took time and effort to get to where we are now. So we should celebrate. But it\u2019s just one milestone in a very long marathon that is going to continue for many, many years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you have any questions about the new policy, or want to share your experiences donating blood, please visit CBRC.net to share your insights with researchers and advocates like Dr. Lachowsky.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A public health researcher weighs in on what queer and trans people need to know about donating blood in Canada<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1175,"featured_media":241698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editorial_slug":"145","_editorial_slug":"","exclude_from_latest_block":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"contributors":[2307],"topic":[76,78,104,95,106],"clients":[],"series":[145],"timeliness":[60],"editorial_format":[1941],"type-of-work":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241695"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241916,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241695\/revisions\/241916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241695"},{"taxonomy":"contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributors?post=241695"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=241695"},{"taxonomy":"clients","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/clients?post=241695"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=241695"},{"taxonomy":"timeliness","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/timeliness?post=241695"},{"taxonomy":"editorial_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial_format?post=241695"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-work","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-work?post=241695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}