The Pros And Cons Of The Gay Blood Ban

With the start of the 1980s came five mysterious reports of previously completely healthy homosexual American men with now severely compromised immune systems. Originally the strange condition was coined GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) due to the sexual orientation of the disease’s first victims. By 1982, we knew this condition was able to spread to anyone of any background, and we renamed it HIV/AIDS. In 1983, with five or six new cases being diagnosed each week and the discovery that the disease is transmitted through bodily fluids, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) brought down the ban hammer on homosexuals donating their blood for transfusion. With no official title, the ban known commonly as the “Gay Blood Ban” has served the

The ban states that one cannot donate blood if they are “a male who has had sexual contact with another male, even once, since 1977.” For the first 15 or so years of the ban’s life, it was accepted as a genius and morally correct way to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS. Recently however, with the advancement of medical technologies, the gay rights movement, and statistical studies, it has been brought to light that the ban is born from prejudice, based on flawed logic, is obsolete, dangerous, and insulting to homosexuals in our county. For these reasons, the Gay Blood Ban is no longer admissible today, and must be lifted. From the outset, AIDS was associated with a high level of stigma and discrimination; AIDS was considered the “gay cancer.” This prejudice arose in part because the AIDS virus begun in this country with a small group of gay men, who were already highly

From the discovery of the AIDS virus in 1980 to the year 1998, the worldwide method of testing for the existence of HIV/AIDS in a human being was the EIA (Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay) test. This test was designed to detect the antibodies in the bloodstream that are produced to fight off the virus. Unfortunately, the EIA test was inaccurate at discovering the presence of the virus because it has the unique ability to stay hidden – dormant rather – in healthy white blood cells for up to ten years. If the virus is dormant, antibodies will not be created to fight it, and the EIA test will not come back positive for HIV/AIDS. This might have been a good, inarguable scientific excuse throughout the 1980s and 90s for the FDA to be extremely careful and implement the Gay Blood Ban, considering an infected homosexual male could slip through the cracks of the test and get to the blood donation gurney. Today however, with a new test invented in 1999 known as NAT (Nucleic Acid Testing), that is no longer a feasible excuse. This new system of testing for HIV/AIDS has the ability to discern the amount of the actual virus in the bloodstream, not just the antibodies produced to fight it. With NAT, it is possible to say within seven days and with 99.9 percent accuracy whether