Michael Cain A campaigner is welcoming the opening of submissions in an independent review of the Australian Red Cross' blanket ban on all sexually-active gay men giving blood. Michael Cain's case against the gay blood ban before the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Tribunal in 2008 helped prompt the review. He says it will allow him and others to make the case that many gay men are at lower risk of HIV infection than many heterosexuals who are currently allowed to donate. The review will look at all sex-based donor deferrals and will accept submissions from September 11 until November 6. Cain will be lodging a submission with the review and will ask the expert witnesses who appeared on his behalf to do the same. “I will be making the case to the review that being allowed to donate blood should depend on the safety of your sexual activity not the gender of your partner. “Statistical modelling from Australia and studies from countries where gay blood donation is allowed all point to the same conclusion, the risk to the blood supply is from unsafe sex not gay sex.” Cain says by excluding gay men who practise safe sex, the Red Cross is denying much needed safe blood to those in need, at times when blood stocks are dwindling. Cain's case against the Red Cross ban was heard by the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Tribunal in 2008 and involved expert witnesses being called from across Australia and around the world. According to the background information and terms of reference of the review, the evidence presented in Cain's case was critical to the review's establishment and will be one of its major sources of information. The Tribunal did not overturn the ban for legal reasons, however, it agreed with Cain that some gay men are at relatively low risk of HIV infection, and called for a further review. Specifically, it found that, “the risk of HIV transmission posed by the low risk sub-group of the MSM (men who have sex with men) group is, in fact, substantially lower than the MSM group as a whole”, and “the relative risk of this low risk group is much closer to the relative risk of other groups tolerated by the donor deferral policy than previously acknowledged”. For more information visit www.bloodrulesreview.com.au Canada A Canadian judge has upheld the ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men who have had even single sexual encounter with a person of the same gender since 1977. Cnews reports the case pitted Canadian Blood Services against a donor named Kyle Freeman, who had argued that he was being denied equal treatment and this violated his constitutional rights. Canadian Blood Services had sued Freeman because he had donated blood despite the ban, falsifying his answers on questionnaires over a 12-year period in the process. Freeman's donated blood was found to be positive for syphilis during routine screening. Freeman counter-sued and claimed that his rights under the country's Charter of Rights had been disregarded. An Ontario Superior Court judge both ruled against Freeman in the suit, and reaffirmed the blood ban.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 11th September 2010 - 12:26pm