Gay Governmental Discrimination
How The FDA And The Peace Corps Dismiss Homosexuals Based On Blood
Apr 23, 2008
This past week the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the United States Peace Corps demanding a change in a policy that does not allow HIV-positive Americans to serve as volunteers overseas. The issue was raised after a volunteer from Denver, Colorado came forward with his story, sent home from his two years of service in Ukraine after testing positive for the virus.
“I joined the Peace Corps because I wanted to learn more about the world and help people,” Jeremiah Johnson told 365gay.com. “It was hard enough to learn that I had contracted HIV, but to then be shipped home and told I was unworthy of finishing my service was incredibly humiliating.”
Johnson tested positive for HIV at his mid-service exam. Directly thereafter he was forced to pack up and leave, foregoing any and all projects he had been working on in Rozdilna, his town. He was also notified that it was not just the Ukraine he was prevented from serving in, but anywhere in the Peace Corps.
Despite a lack of health issues pertaining to his HIV status, the organization’s decision held fast.
According to the article, “The ACLU’s demand letter charges that it is illegal under the Rehabilitation Act for the Peace Corps to discriminate against Johnson because he has HIV.” With a court decision regarding the Foreign Service sending HIV-positive members abroad under their belts, the ACLU may have a case yet.
“There is not a single justifiable reason for the Peace Corp to bar people with HIV from serving as volunteers,” Rebecca Shore, an attorney with the ACLU’s AIDS Project, said this week. “Jeremiah was, and continues to be, in good health, fully capable of performing his responsibilities. It is especially disappointing that an agent of our government would have an illegal and discriminatory policy barring people with HIV from trying to make the world better.”
From the Corps to the Cross
Unfortunately, good intentioned organizations like the Peace Corps are not alone in their discrimination. The Red Cross and other American blood banks are in and have been in the same ship since the 1980s when the AIDS scare first surfaced. The Food and Drug Administration implemented a policy disallowing gay men from donating blood some 20 years ago that they have yet to update.
Just about a year ago the FDA reconfirmed its 1983 prohibition intended to prevent HIV from being transmitted through blood transfusions, despite the fact that the Red Cross and other blood groups described it as “medically and scientifically unwarranted.”
As it stood and continues to stand, all men must fill out a questionnaire before blood-giving, one of the questions being, “Are you a man who has had sex with a man, even once, since 1977?” Answer in the affirmative and your blood is no good, regardless of whether you always protect yourself during intercourse or are in a long-term, monogamous relationship. The hypocrisy of the policy comes with the fact that a sexually promiscuous man with multiple female partners would be able to give blood without a problem, the FDA essentially labeling the latter male safer than the former. Although the organization denies discrimination within the policy, this one stipulation opposes that assurance.
What’s the answer?
As far as the Peace Corps goes, the organization must change its policy on HIV-positive volunteers, or prove that they do not automatically exclude all HIV-infected volunteers (or potential volunteers). “According to the ACLU, the Peace Corps must consider on an individualized basis whether an applicant with HIV can volunteer, including making every effort to place those who are able to serve in a country that doesn’t bar people with HIV from working in the country,” 365gay.com reports.
The FDA on the other hand has been dealing with their own policy changes for years, but to no avail. March 2006 saw the Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks and America’s Blood Centers join together in their consensus that a one-year deferral following male-to-male contact would be better than a lifetime band. Since current HIV tests allow positive results to be shown within 10-21 days of infection, a life of no blood donation is absurd.
According to gay.com from May 23, 2007, “The FDA said HIV tests currently in use are highly accurate, but still cannot detect the virus 100 percent of the time. The estimated HIV risk from a unit of blood is currently about one per 2 million in the United States, according to the agency.”
As the virus and disease become easier for infectees to deal with, perhaps the Peace Corps will be more realistic in their “no HIVers allowed” policy. Similarly, as means of HIV detection improve, the FDA will eventually be forced to make alterations to their already antiquated and discriminatory policy.
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