End Homosexual Blood Donor Discrimination

Dear Food and Drug Administration,

A study by Randall Sell, James Wells and David Wypij at Harvard School of Public Health, found that 6.2% to 20.8% of American men could be considered "incidentally homosexual."  The higher percentages are based on admitted homosexual behavior or attraction since age 15.  The lower percentages are admissions of actual same sex behavior in the past 5 years.  Regardless of whether the number is 2% or 20%, my cause here is to end the Food and Drud Administration's blatant and appalling discrimination against willing and able men simply because we have a natural homosexual gender orientation.  It is estimated that 5 million recipients are transfused with blood components in the U.S. annually.  Obviously, blood components can only be collected from healthy donors and have a very short shelf life.  There are continuous shortages nationwide.  In order to ensure that there is a consistent and adequate blood supply, why not encourage healthy homosexual men to donate blood regularly?  Blood donation eligibility guidelines, according to the FDA state, "You are at risk for getting infected with HIV/AIDS if you: are a male who has had sexual contact with another male, even once, since 1977."  There is something profoundly wrong with that statement.  Forty thousand Americans become infected with HIV each year, and an estimated 1 million are already living with the disease.  They are not all homosexual men.  They are also heterosexual men, women and children.  It is particularly alarming that 22 years into the AIDS epidemic, we are still faced with fundamental misunderstandings that HIV and AIDS are "gay" diseases.  HIV and AIDS do not discriminate, neither should you.  The FDA claims that the blood supply is "safer than ever before" due to the sophisticated testing that each and every blood donation is subject to.  All donated blood is screened for HIV, Hepatitis B and C, HTLV, West Nile Virus, Chaga's Disease and Syphilis, yet homosexual men are barred from donating blood.  Why?  With our willingness to donate, imagine the additional lives that could be saved each year if the FDA would simply permit us to do so.  Blood centers such as the FDA's affiliates (American Red Cross) provide a great service to men, women and children in need of blood components.  However, the FDA is providing a greater public disservice by contributing to hate, discrimination and intolerance of homosexual men.  The FDA has a moral obligation to right this terrible wrong.

Sincerely,
 
Michael S. Taylor