Loosening the ban was supported by prominent groups including the American Medical Assn. The lifetime ban was first eased six years ago, but only for gay and bisexual men who had not had sex with another man for at least a year - a rule that effectively continued to bar gay men if they were at all sexually active. “It’s hard to overstate how strong the impact of that terrible time was on blood banks,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, who opposed the lifetime ban. Blood centers were horrified when hemophiliacs who relied on blood products were infected with HIV through transfusions. Since then, “I’ve watched the world change around me” - including legal recognition for his marriage and gay couples living happily on television and in films.īeing barred from giving blood, Goldstein said, seems “totally out of step with where we are.”Įarly in the AIDS epidemic, serological testing couldn’t effectively detect the virus until months after exposure. The only examples of gay people were people dying of AIDS,” Goldstein said. “When I grew up, it was very clear that as a boy, being gay was the worst thing you could be. This summer, after he had his blood drawn for the study at a Pasadena center, he snapped a photo of himself outside and posted it on Facebook.
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Before he became ineligible to donate, Goldstein - who has type O negative blood - said he had given blood so regularly that he had been rewarded with a pin as a frequent donor. They are aiming to garner 2,000 participants in eight areas, assisted by partners including the Los Angeles LGBT Center.Īmong those participants is Goldstein. The Red Cross and two other blood centers - Vitalant and OneBlood - are now enrolling sexually active gay and bisexual men in the federally funded study, asking them about risky behaviors, then collecting and testing their blood for HIV. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times) Now blood banks are seeking out gay and bisexual men in cities including Los Angeles, Miami and Memphis for the Advance Study, which aims to find out whether asking would-be donors about risky behaviors - such as having sex without a condom - could be a safe alternative to screening out all men who have recently had sex with men. When the FDA sought comments, hundreds of people sent in letters asserting that “weakening the protections of America’s blood supply for political ideology puts the safety of Americans at risk.” Others have argued against loosening the restrictions, saying it is too risky to expand eligibility among a group that has higher rates of HIV infection. Gay men in monogamous relationships are generally barred, but “what about straight men who are having unprotected sex with women or engaging in other risky behavior?” “It’s perpetuating a discriminatory approach that’s not based in science,” said Stephen Lee, executive director of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. Many were especially upset after a mass shooting at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Fla., when gay men were turned away from giving blood to help the wounded. The federal rules have long drawn protests from physicians, politicians and activists who denounce them as outdated and stigmatizing. But gay and bisexual men are still ineligible to donate if they have had sex with another man in the last three months. The FDA, which regulates blood banks, has eased the rules somewhat in recent years. Decades ago, as AIDS began devastating gay communities, the Food and Drug Administration advised blood centers to prohibit any man who had had sex with another man since 1977 - even once - from donating. Men who have sex with men have long faced restrictions on giving blood in the United States, amid concerns about the disproportionate toll of HIV/AIDS on gay and bisexual men. “It’s frustrating not being able to help when I’m a healthy donor,” said Goldstein, a biology professor who has been in a monogamous relationship with his husband for more than a decade. Now the 38-year-old was in a donation center for the first time in years, this time as part of a study that could lead to the changing of a federal rule that has angered and alienated gay men such as him.
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He used to routinely give blood when he was much younger, eager to help save a life. Andrew Goldstein sat and waited as his blood, precious and disputed, flowed into the vials.