InsaneJournal

In Which Delphi Seethes
Sexually Active Gay Men No Longer Allowed to Donate Organs

If anyone, Canadian or otherwise, is as disgusted with this as I am, please check out this post by jack_pride for information on how to contact the Minister of Health, and to drop her a line letting her know you've done so. I'm grateful to her for bringing this to my attention.

I was shocked the first time I went to give blood, to find myself barred because I was having (protected) sex with a guy (who had tested clean) who had previously had (protected) sex with another guy. There were no questions about whether I'd had unprotected sex in general in the last six months, no question as to whether my partner or I had been tested for STDs. Just: was I or had I slept with an intravenous drug user, had I accepted money for sex or slept with someone who had, and had I slept with a man who had slept with a man even once. The questionnaire made sure to point out that this was because statistical studies had found that gay men were at higher risk for HIV than other people. Funny, but according to the statistical studies I've seen, Aboriginals and Black Canadians are at higher risk than whites, men are nearly three times more likely to have HIV than women, and those in their 30s are twice as likely to be living with an HIV diagnosis than any other age group, but I don't see any of those mentioned - not to mention all the people my own age I know who think nothing about having unprotected heterosexual every weekend. Still, it was easy to pass these rules off as unfortunate relics and put changing them on the backburner - but to have this be passed in 2007/2008 floors me, and has floored medical professionals in the field who had no idea such regulations were being passed. No wonder we're seeing a resurgence of unsafe sex among young people, when even the government is saying that HIV is about sexual orientation rather than protection - that AIDS is a gay disease.

Those who are inclined to do so, please consider taking five minutes to fire off an email or phone call to let Health Canada know how you feel.

ETA: An update care of sciencegeek - some backpeddling from Health Canada care in an article titled New Organ Donation Rules Don't Exclude Gay Men which goes on to explain how gay men are only excluded by default, barring in-depth research into the donor's life to qualify for an exemption, with the recipient being made aware that they may be getting The AIDS from The Ghey.