I don’t know if you have seen the latest proposal from the FDA on blood donations?
They are discussing lifting the ban on life time ban on blood donation for gay men and changing it to abstention from sex with men for at least one year. The ban is not for lesbians, but only gay men, so where do we fit in to the ban.
I know someone who went to give blood, told the screen all her health history and the IV was being started when the supervisor came out to her. In a loud voice the supervisor said that “transsexuals cannot give blood!” talk about violating HIPAA.
They are discussing lifting the ban on life time ban on blood donation for gay men and changing it to abstention from sex with men for at least one year. The ban is not for lesbians, but only gay men, so where do we fit in to the ban.
FDA’s New Blood Donation Guidelines Offer Little Clarity For Transgender PeopleThis is total ignorance on the part of the FDA, they have no idea anything about gender dysphoria, they are just lumping us in with “gays.” They do have any understand about us,
Doctors criticize the FDA for applying its ban on blood donations based on a person’s sex at birth, not their risky or safe behavior.
BuzzFeed News
By Dominic Holden
Posted on Jan. 21, 2015
The Food and Drug Administration’s proposal to change its 30-year-old policy that bans men who have had sex with another man from donating blood for life has highlighted a problem not often discussed in connection with the so-called “gay blood ban”: the policy’s incoherent, arbitrary treatment of transgender people.
“Our policy is to designate by sex at birth,” FDA spokesperson Tara Goodin told BuzzFeed News. “That is all there is to it.”
The policy, medical experts say, creates for transgender people what is, effectively, an inverse of the blood ban applied to other people. For example, a transgender woman who only has sex with straight men is banned from donating blood. A transgender man who is gay and has sex with men, on the other hand, is allowed to donate blood.
“The existing policy is flawed at its core,” Madeline Deutsch, a medical doctor and director of clinical service at the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health at UCSF, told BuzzFeed News, “and transgender people highlight this problem.”This all came about during the Regan administration, from the homophobia that ran wild in his administration over AIDS.
[…]
“It is absurd to determine eligibility based on how someone identifies and who they are attracted to. It should have to do with behaviors that put someone in a high-risk category,” Deutsch said. Those risky behaviors include IV drug use, unprotected sex with multiple partners, and sex while intoxicated. She supports a policy that assesses behavior, not binary gender roles or sexual orientation, as the basis for denying blood donations.
I know someone who went to give blood, told the screen all her health history and the IV was being started when the supervisor came out to her. In a loud voice the supervisor said that “transsexuals cannot give blood!” talk about violating HIPAA.
I may sound dense but I'm not familiar with the term HIPAA. Could you please explain. You can send your response to my gmail. Thank you very much!
ReplyDelete"HIPAA is the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The primary goal of the law is to make it easier for people to keep health insurance, protect the confidentiality and security of healthcare information and help the healthcare industry control administrative costs."
ReplyDeleteWhat the law does is require your medical records to only be disclosed to a third party with your permission. It is a crime if they tell anyone with out your consent.