Blood Wars

Someone once told that they went to donate blood and they filled out all the forms and the tech was getting ready to put in her IV when the blood bank supervisor came out on the collection floor and in a loud voice said “We don’t allow transsexuals to give blood!”

Puget Sound blood bank sued by transgender womanKOMO News
By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Associated Press
Published: Sep 1, 2015

SEATTLE (AP) - A transgender woman has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against a Seattle-based blood bank, saying she was fired after changing her donor profile to female to match her reissued birth certificate.
[…]
A long-time donor to the organization formerly known as the Puget Sound Blood Center before her transition and before becoming an employee, Binschus was accused of falsifying her donor record after the organization changed its policy on gender identification, according to her attorney, Jillian T. Weiss.
"I think It's important for employers to understand that a transgender woman is a woman. Whatever they may have been thinking about who she is, according to the state of Washington, she is a female," Weiss said. "To be fired because she says so is a violation."

After she was fired,

She was told to remove books and pamphlets related to gender identity from the office because a co-worker considered them controversial. She was accused of letting her advocacy interfere with her work. And she was referred to as "his/her" in an email from a superior, according to the lawsuit.

I can’t help but wonder if her treatment was related to the FDA discriminating policy of banning trans people, and gay men from giving blood. Did the policy embolden the workers there to harass and discriminate against her?

To The FDA, Everyone Transgender Is a Gay Man
There's a secret in the federal blood donation policy: it treats all transgender people — male or female — like they're gay or bisexual men.
The Advocate
By Dawn Ennis
February  02, 2015


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in December that it would soon reevaluate policies to allow more gay and bisexual men to donate blood, but health and civil rights advocates say the administration still enforces a “heterosexist bias” against transgender donors.

The policy in place since 1983 indefinitely banned men who have had sex with men from donating blood, but after years of lobbying from medical organizations, activists, and politicians, the FDA said the policy would be reevaluated. Later this year, the FDA is expected to officially lift the lifetime ban, and instead enforce a one-year ban following the last time a man had sex with another man, and remained HIV-negative.
[…]
But what has not been reported is that in addition to turning away all MSM, the FDA has a policy on the books that disregards the authentic gender expressions of transgender men and women which also prevents them from giving blood.

Are they going to argue that being trans also prevents trans people from working in blood banks?