We need to talk about stigmas: blood donation and sexual preferences

Being able to donate blood follows obvious criteria like weight and age. But what about sexual preferences?

Homosexual or bisexual men are excluded from blood donations because they belong to a group with higher risk of HIV infection. While new medications are generally so effective that HIV positive individuals are not contagious anymore, the stigmas still exist and are nurtured by legislative measures like that.

While the European Supreme Court stipulated in 2015 that a life long exclusion based on sexual preferences is not allowed, the exclusion is still justified in most countries with arguments based on risk situations. Since July 2017 homosexual and bisexual men are allowed to donate blood in Switzerland under the premise that they had no sexual intercourse for one year. Modern tests are able to detect an infection already after several days, which makes it even more ridiculous to implement something that does not change anything. And while it is supposed to conquer a life long discrimination, this implementation clearly fails to do so.

The individual risk is evaluated by a questionnaire handed out before the donation. Is it not about time to evaluate the risk of an individual based on actual sexual behavior and usage of protective measures than on simply sexual preferences?

Let us talk about stigmas...