Volunteers from Tufts' fraternities and sororities will next week be giving blood on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in an effort to raise awareness of the fact that federal statutes prohibit some of its members from doing so themselves.
The students will donate blood at the April 12-16 American Red Cross blood drive, hosted by the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS), in Carmichael Hall next week. A 1992 U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation bars men who have sex with men (MSM) from being blood donors.
"They'll be donating on behalf of the larger idea of those who can't, particularly MSM people but there are so many people who can't," Aaron Hartman, a graduate assistant at the LGBT Center, said. "They'll record that they're donating for that particular reason."
"It is a wonderful idea to raise awareness," senior Jenna Dargie, one of the blood drive's co-coordinators, said. "It's great to still donate blood because it's so important, but this will open discussion about this policy and hopefully it will be changed."
Hartman said members of Team Q, an on-campus student group that focuses on LGBT issues, will be at the drive to raise awareness about the ban and encourage them to donate. Many people are unaware that the ban exists, he said, because the screening questionnaire taken beforehand only asks if would-be donors have ever slept with another man without explaining the reason for the question.
"A lot of times if you're not thinking about it you wouldn't realize there's a ban," Hartman said.
To further incentivize blood donation, fraternities and sororities will compete against each other. The Greek organization with the highest percentage of members donating on behalf of the LGBT community will receive a $400 prize, according to sophomore Logan Cotton, a Theta Delta Chi brother in charge of marketing the campaign.
The FDA regulation in question states that any man who has had sex with another man — since the 1977 emergence in the United States of the HIV/AIDS epidemic — are indefinitely ineligible to donate blood. This restriction extends to MSM persons in monogamous relationships and women who have slept with MSM persons.
According to the site, the MSM community is the largest single group of blood donors to test HIV positive.
The rule is in place for biological reasons, not discriminatory ones, the FDA argues.
"Scientifically, there is basis for the policy to still exist," Ryan Heman, a senior TCU senator, said. "The MSM population does have the vast majority of HIV and AIDS in the United States, so the risk of transmission if MSM were allowed to donate would increase."
According to Heman, the discriminatory nature of the regulation was addressed in fall 2004 when then-senior Matthew Pohl filed a complaint against the LCS with regard to the blood drives. Pohl claimed that because the LCS received TCU funds to conduct the blood drives, they violated the university's non-discrimination policy.
"His opinion was that since gay and bisexual members of the community cannot participate because they can't donate blood, it was a violation of the non-discrimination policy, both of the TCU and the university," Heman said.
In an arbitration agreement between Pohl, the LCS and the university, the blood drives were allowed to continue. LCS would host, rather than sponsor, the drives, and agreed to provide programming that promotes awareness of the MSM policy and LGBT issues.
"As it stands [the blood drive] is still in violation of the non-discrimination policy, but an exception was made through the arbitration agreement," Heman said.
This exception was made because the agreement includes the disclaimer requiring educational initiatives to spread awareness of the issue. Heman said this side of the agreement has not been upheld.
"The cause to raise awareness over the controversy is not something that has really been carried out," Heman said. "The disclaimer is not enough, and something else should be done. It would be great to see joint programming."
The Red Cross collects 2,000 units of blood a day across the nation, according to Red Cross spokesperson Donna Morrissey. Though it is legally obligated, along with all other blood banking organizations, to follow the FDA regulation on MSM, the Red Cross does not necessarily endorse it.
"The Red Cross believes that the current lifetime deferral for men who have had sex with other men is unwarranted and that the donor criteria should be modified," Morrissey told the Daily last month.
Hartman thinks there are ways to allow some members of the LGBT community to donate without putting recipients at risk, he said.
"The statistics make sense but there are a lot of reasons why the regulation shouldn't still be this way," Hartman said. "Feasibly the policy would be very easy to change. Raising awareness through events like the blood drive is more important than anything."
