Petition to Challenge Canadian Blood Services' policy of rejecting sexually active gay blood donors.

To:  Canadian Blood Services

A Canadian Blood Services policy explicitly states: "all men who have had sex with another man, even once, since 1977 are indefinitely deferred [from donating blood]." The organization's rationale for adopting this policy is allegedly based on information that suggests a higher risk of HIV/AIDS infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) compared to other groups.
However, we are challenging Blood Services' practice of rejecting MSM blood donors for three reasons:

1. It is illegal under Section 5(a) of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

2. Assessing the overall proportion of HIV/AIDS infection among MSM is impossible, since the exact population of this group in Canada remains unknown.

3. Given that 54.3% of HIV positive tests in 2004 were attributed to causes other than MSM activity, all Canadian blood donors should be equally subject to rigorous testing and screening.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Petition to Challenge Canadian Blood Services' policy of rejecting sexually active gay blood donors. Petition to Canadian Blood Services was created by Egale/StopDiscrimination.net and written by Hossein Kia (hkia@sfu.ca).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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