I can’t give blood. Some may point to my scrawny, twig-like body as the reason, but no. I weigh over 110 pounds. I don’t have any venereal diseases either, and I’m definitely HIV negative. But since I’ve had sex with another man since 1977, I’m not allowed to give blood – ever.

Newscasters on Sept. 11 repeated before every commercial break, “If you’d like to help, report to your local blood center.” Across the country, thousands of healthy men were turned away by answering truthfully whether they’ve had sexual contact with a man, even just once, since 1977. The restriction covers anal and oral sex, regardless of whether it’s protected or unprotected.

But to many, this Food and Drug Administration policy, created in 1985, blatantly discriminates against gays. “The blood laws are an artifact of a ridiculous and homophobic AIDS scare that no longer accurately describes the epidemic,” says Matthew Barbour, former president of the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alliance

Some argue that the FDA simply wants to keep the blood supply as clean as possible. “It’s not discriminating against homosexuals in any manner,” says Oron Stenesh, publicity coordinator for Northwestern Student Blood Services. “It’s necessary to decrease as many of the variables that could contaminate the blood as possible.”

In September 2000, the FDA considered changing the restrictions. By their estimates, there are 62,000 men who want to donate blood but are prohibited from doing so by the current rules. If they were changed, so that men would have to wait five years after having sex with a man, a possible 1,246 units of infected blood would be donated. After rigorous testing, 1.7 units of HIV-infected blood potentially could enter the blood supply. The final vote was 7-6, with the rule being upheld.

But some consider these statistics as just what they are: worst-case scenarios. “I don’t believe there’d be an increase of contamination of the blood supply,” says Don Skiba, public relations manager for LifeSource, which holds regular blood drives on NU’s campus in cooperation with Student Blood Services. “It would be screened beforehand and the blood goes through a series of 13 tests for HIV, hepatitis, and many others.”

LifeSource has been pushing the FDA to relax the rule so that men would have to wait only a year after having sex with another man, similar to the policy with risky heterosexual sex. Resistance to the FDA policy has been building in recent years, and some blood drive recruiters have been known to encourage people to lie in order to give blood.

The issue affects us all because blood shortages have become a seasonal tradition, raising important questions of whether we should exclude tens of thousands of donors.

“While of course we want to keep the blood supply safe severe blood shortage is also a significant concern. The risk of a blood shortage is more serious than the risk of possible contamination especially since we have new technology to screen blood,” says Marty Rouse, government affairs liaison for the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

The central point is that like risks should be treated equally, regardless of sexual orientation. According to FDA policy today, having sex with a healthy, HIV-negative man has prohibited me from ever giving blood. But if I instead had sex with a female prostitute off the street, I’d only have to wait a year. I guess my gay blood just isn’t good enough.

To help effect change, you can write to the FDA at [email protected].