op-ed Blood discrimination costs lives

Author: Ryan Tauriainen and Chelsea Guster

On Monday, March 3 at 4:00 p.m. in McCullough Social Space, the American Red Cross and the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (MOQA) will be hosting an historic open forum in order to discuss the discriminatory policies that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) forces blood-collecting organizations to practice. At face value, blood drives hosted by the American Red Cross are a great thing to have on a college campus. College students provide a significant percentage of blood donations in the United States, and most of these students donate at drives sponsored by their school. Middlebury generally hosts a handful of these drives, often with the sponsorship of Atwater Commons. Not many people realize, however, the type of discrimination some people face at these drives, and how certain regulations are not in compliance with Middlebury's non-discrimination policy.

Instituted in 1983, the Red Cross has practiced a ban on gay and bisexual men from donating blood because of the increased risk of AIDS queer men had during this decade. This discrimination has become extremely outdated and offensive to the men of our queer community at Middlebury today. Recently, the president of San Jose State University banned all blood drives instituted by the American Red Cross because of its discriminatory policies concerning gay and bisexual men. These actions follow the cancellations instated at Southern Oregon University years ago.

To clarify: the FDA policy the Red Cross follows is one that bans any man who has ever engaged in "sexual activity" (whether protected or not) with another male, even once, since 1977. To put this in perspective, a man can have as much unprotected sex with as many illegal prostitutes as he wants, and only be deferred for one year. Obviously, this policy is misguided and outdated. The Red Cross wants Middlebury College's help in defeating it.

In over 20 years, there have been incredible advancements in HIV prevention. At this time, the demographic with the highest growing cases of infection are heterosexual women: especially African American women. And yet, any man who has had any form of sex with a man, whether it be protected, monogamous or even just once, is permanently banned from donating blood. The sentiment given off is that all gay and bisexual men have AIDS, and not only that, but their form of AIDS is undetectable. The screening process that all blood goes through in the Red Cross can detect HIV within 11 days of infection - even before one's own body can detect the virus.

Middlebury College has a non-discrimination policy of which the community is very proud. It is one that, among many other things, does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. This extremely outdated policy by the FDA is a discriminatory practice. It is not discriminating upon the notion of unsafe sex, which any person no matter his or her sexual orientation can commit. It discriminates upon an identity for unfounded reasons. An organization that discriminates against any group of people or students should not be allowed to use the college's facilities and benefit from funds that all students contribute to this college.

Because blood is important to save lives and is often banked in low numbers, it would serve the FDA well to lift the ban on gay and bisexual men from donating, or at least relaxing their rules to better fit the times. Without activism, this may never happen. These practices should not go unquestioned at a school like Middlebury where we are taught to question policy that is unfair to our minorities. Can Middlebury continue to give space to an organization, though virtuous in its ultimate mission, which discriminates against certain students? Wonderfully for us, the American Red Cross would like to inspire activism in order to lift this ban. Upon being asked by the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance, Middlebury College will be hosting a historic meeting with the American Red Cross in order to discuss the discrimination gay and bisexual men face at blood drives.

The open forum is taking place with four high ranking officials from the Red Cross in attendance to talk about the policy against gay and bisexual men and what steps college students can take to fight against it. People with an interest in the medical field are especially encouraged to attend. Additionally, at the March 4 Blood Drive in McCullough, MOQA will be hosting a "sponsor blood drive" in which all students donating blood will be asked to sign a document saying they are donating as a "sponsor" for a gay student who cannot. All of these signatures will be sent, by the Vermont Red Cross, to the CEO of the organization. The MOQA Executive Board hopes that these two events will culminate into campus wide discussion and activism concerning the unfair discrimination queer men are facing.

Ryan Tauriainen '08 and Chelsea Guster '11 are Co-Presidents of the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance.