I hope you all have had a wonderful couple of weeks. I had to take last week off to focus on grading, my least favorite part of teaching. Grades are now done, teaching is done, and I get to focus on my summer plans, reading, writing, and data analysis! And, of course, this newsletter.
Blood Donations:
Recently, the FDA changed their guidelines for blood donation. Since the 1980s, any man who has had sex with another man was prohibited from donating blood. The new guidelines, which were released last week, make the following changes (the full press release can be found here):
In general, men who have sex with men will be able to donate blood as long as:
They haven’t had a new sexual partner or multiple sexual partners with whom they’ve had anal sex in the past three months.
They are not taking PReP or PEP to prevent HIV.
While this is a step ahead in gay rights, it is disappointing that those who take care of themselves by taking PReP will not be able to donate blood. The Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), one of the most respected LGBTQIA+ health organizations in the US has released a statement of concern, found here. Specifically, they raise the issues that:
GMHC said that these recommendations are “nonbinding”. This can create issues where some blood banks will still discriminate against men who have sex with men.
These recommendations treat all anal sex as the same risk for HIV, where having sex with a condom is significantly safer than condomless intercourse.
These regulations put limits based on anal sex but not vaginal sex.
History of the LGBTQIA+ community and the FDA:
Gay men have been prohibited from donating blood since the 1983, back when AIDS was also known as Gay-Related Immune Disorder (GRID). The concern was around donations leading to a spread of AIDS. In 2015, the FDA changed the lifetime ban on men who have sex with men from having sex to a one-year abstinence from anal sex for blood donation (shortened to three months during the pandemic).
What does this mean for nonprofits?
As these are still new, many organizations which do blood drives may not be aware of these changes. Furthermore, if these are nonbinding, not every organization would need to follow these. Understanding that men who have sex with men can give blood opens up new options. In my family, blood donations is a big part of our culture, though for obvious reasons I have never donated blood (though I do plan to start doing it soon). If you want to donate blood, click here to find a local blood drive.
Florida (Again):
I am talking about Florida a lot for a couple of reasons. 1) Their Governor is going to be running for President in 2024 and is 2) using gay and trans panic to build up his conservative credentials leading to 3) authoritarian and discriminatory laws and witch hunts against minorities, especially queer individuals. I’ve talked about this impact in previous blogs.
DeSantis has passed the “Protection of Medical Conscience” Act, or as Alejendra Carabello calls it, the “Let Them Die Act”. This bill will allow doctors and other medical providers to deny services based on any ethical, moral, or religious belief. This bill also includes insurance companies and other payment entities. Along with refusing service, medical providers can refuse to provide referrals, leaving LGBTQIA+ individuals to find their own care if they are denied care from their preferred providers. Medical boards cannot discipline doctors who deny care or spread misinformation. This is part of the almost 500 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills that the ACLU has been tracking since the beginning of the year. A similar law was passed in Arkansas two years ago. Even besides these laws, LGBTQIA+ individuals report medical discrimination. As a reminder, for social workers, it goes against the National Association of Social Worker’s code of ethics to discriminate against LGBTQIA+ people. If these laws will lead to a high amount of medical discrimination is unclear but it makes a very clear message to LGBTQIA+ individuals.
What can nonprofits do?
Nonprofits can help by creating lists of supportive medical providers and reaching out to see who is LGBTQIA+ inclusive (or neutral). By having a list of doctors who will support LGBTQIA+ individuals, you are helping make sure that queer people, when looking for a medical provider, don’t need to worry about acceptance or discrimination.