The Australian Red Cross bans all sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating blood.
We believe this ban is wrong for three reasons.
It puts lives at risk by reducing the pool of potential blood donors at a time when blood is in short supply.
It stigmatises gay and bisexual men as a threat to public health.
It wrongly portrays male-to-male sex as inherently a health risk, and sends out the irresponsible public health message that heterosexual sex is health-risk free.
The Red Cross must remove its ban on gay and bisexual men giving blood and instead screen all potential donors on the basis of the individual medical and sexual activity, including whether or not they practise safe sex.
For more information go to http://tglrg.org/index/C0_1_1/
As safe transfusable blood is in short supply in Australia
As the availability of safe, transfusable blood is critical to saving lives
As HIV is transmitted by unsafe sex and not gay sex
As scientific evidence shows that gay men who have safe sex in monogamous relationships are at very extremely risk of HIV infection and transmission
We believe potential blood donors should be screened for the safety of their sexual activity not the gender of their sexual partner.
And we call on the Federal Parliament to allocate funds to allow the Red Cross to conduct a trial to determine whether such a policy will enhance the availability of safe blood.
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The Red Cross gay blood bank trial petition to Federal Government of Australia was written by Australian Coalition for Equality and is in the category Human Rights at GoPetition.