Medical personnel denying LGBTQ+ men from donating blood is discrimination

Posted Oct. 22, 2022

By Ivan Garz

Staff Reporter

Here in the U.S. we are experiencing a national blood shortage, the worst one in a decade. So why now, when we need more people to donate blood, are medical personnel permitted to turn away gay or LGBTQ+ presenting men from donating? 

Men who date other men have been proven to not be more likely to have bloodborne or sexually transmitted diseases than straight men, and all blood that is donated is tested for any bloodborne diseases before it is stored, let alone administered. Therefore, there is no reason for same-sex attracted men not to be allowed to donate blood. 

Homophobia is clearly a factor in these medical personnel turning away these people from donating. The stigma associated with same-sex attracted men and being more likely to have bloodborne and sexually transmitted  diseases like HIV and Hepatitis B and C is still very alive. No matter the evidence disproving this as inaccurate, many people still believe it to be true. A perfectly able-bodied person who would like to donate blood during a national blood shortage should not be turned away for their sexuality or medical personnels’ assumptions about that person’s sexuality. The medical field is no place for any kind of discrimination, and these medical personnel should know better than anyone that there is no reason, aside from their own personal biases, to turn away someone simply because of their sexuality, especially during a nationwide blood shortage when every two seconds a blood transfusion is required on a patient, according to america'sblood.org.

Medical discrimination similar to this is often brushed off and goes unchecked for many years. This isn’t okay. Something like this can directly affect thousands of people’s lives, all because certain groups of people are turned away solely based on someone’s personal prejudice and ignorance of the facts. I am astounded that in this day and age we still have these problems when we could be advancing so much more as a society. It is truly disappointing. We trust medical personnel to be unbiased and know the facts; this is why many people are shocked to find out  discrimination in the medical field does still exist and needs to be stopped. Our lives at one point or another depend on these medical personnel and the resources they have which is why no eligible person should be turned away from donating blood.