There is no doubt that there is a high need for blood in our health care services across Europe. Unfortunately, the supplies of blood, and the number of donors often risks running low – one reason blatant discrimination!
Shortage of blood from time to time in many countries poses a serious health care problem. Bearing this in mind it is a serious problem that many countries deny people the opportunity to be blood donors based on discriminatory practices and legislation. Instead of sorting who can be a blood donor based on individual behavior and risk management all men who have any form of sexual relation with other men are excluded point blank. Or are excluded in practice by having to pass over a much higher bar to be accepted as donors.
These laws and obstacles are not helpful to the health care system and are not based on any evidence-based ground. We believe it is time for change. It is time to stop discrimination! It is time to move forward and to remove this type of obstacles to give more people the opportunity to do good by becoming blood donors.
Today it is still common that rules are different for men who have sex with men to become blood donors than the rules applied to heterosexual men. The former group is assigned more restrictions and longer periods of deferral then others. This is the case in countries such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Belgium. Countries with a self-image of non-discrimination against the LGBT-group.
A typical example is donors that are not part of the group men who have sex with men may donate if they had no new sex partners for a certain amount of time. Meaning they can still have an active sex life with their partner. But often men who have sex with men must abstain totally from all sexual contacts for several months prior to the time of donating blood. This even if they have one steady partner — this applies even if they are married! Meaning that even in countries how do not outright ban men who have sex with men from donating those concerned are forced into celibacy to be blood donors. A practice that is unnecessary, deprives the health care system of donors and constitutes a clear form of discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The obstacles and the bans are unnecessary. All blood donors should be judged individually, not prejudiced for being part of a group. You can have a pattern of sexual contacts that may pose a higher risk no matter if you are straight, bi or gay. The health care services know how to handle this. We should trust the medical profession who knows how to make sure blood donated by anyone is safe to use for others.
It is therefore high time to change this and let men who have sex with men become blood donors across Europe on the same terms as others as is the case in Ireland, Spain, Germany and Malta to name some. It is time for evidence-based rules for blood donation. This would raise the potential number of blood donors across Europe and will help relieve the need for blood at our hospitals. And there is no better time than now to address the issue. A new EU-commission will be in place soon and they need to show they mean business when it comes to eliminating discrimination against the LGBT community, to follow through on the EU LGBTIQ Equality strategy.
Therefore we in the European Centre-Right LGBT+ Alliance call upon all law makers, not least the newly elected European Parliament and the coming EU commission to address this example of discrimination. You can lead all EU member countries in the right direction by calling for blood donations regulation in the member states to be based on evidence and individual risk assessment. It is time to live in 2024 and stop discriminatory practices against a group of potential blood donors – because it is the right thing to do!
Helge Ytterøy L’orange, President
Gerben Horst, Vice president
Kevin Maas, Vice president
Fredrik Saweståhl, Secretary General
