Blood donating

[ktheodos]

Do you think gay people should be allowed to donate blood?

[jkhanson]

Blood is blood.  People who have a disease or something that could contaminate the blood should not donate because the person/s receiving blood needs healthy blood.  Being gay doesn't in and of itself mean there is something wrong with their blood. IMHO

[Nancy5]

Jkhanson is correct.  I can't give blood due to all the chemo I got and still getting.  Being gay does not mean there will be something wrong with their blood.  'Straight' people can have multiple reasons their blood cannot be used also.

[o2bnocn]

Why does being gay make it any different than someone straight blood?

[patriciaeclevenger]

Absolutely! There should be screenings for diseases but your donation should not be restricted based on your race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. To me, healthy blood is universal and especially in a tragedy when the blood banks are desperately needing volunteers to donate. This policy needs to be revised.

[themrs13]

I Think in a matter of life or death .... I don't care if the BLOOD that is saving MY LIFE or MY LOVE ONES LIFE is from a  GAY PERSON .... 

[mrsmere]

As long as there are no problems with it everyone should be able to give blood if they so desire.  I understand if you have certain health conditions you are not allowed to donate  and that should be the only stipulation.

[aflyingmonkey]

It's due to the higher risk of having undetected HIV...   I worked at Disney for some time, where a large percentage of gay people work, and this topic came up quite a bit; I do not ever remember anyone complaining about not being able to donate during annual blood drives... only understanding...  & I am in So CAL, a very liberal state, if people thought the rules were unfairly biased, you can bet it would be a big deal....even in San Francisco it is not a big deal.     

 There are other groups that are also on the not allowed to donate list... it's not about their sexual orientation, per se, it's about being in a high risk category.  There are all kinds of restrictions dealing with body fluids & transmission.