HIV/AIDS is not, as it was originally claimed by many, a gay disease, but it remains a disease that hits the gay community with disproportionate lethality. That’s triple the rate from intravenous drug use. In choosing to continue to refuse donations from gay men, CBS is erring on the side of caution to protect our blood supply, a vital national medical resource.Past incidences of people slandering homosexuals as immoral and unclean can make it awkward, or politically suicidal, to address the difficult fact that while HIV/AIDS now afflicts every segment of our society, over half of the new cases reported in Canada each year are a result of sexual acts between male partners. But the CBS’s ban on donations from gay males is not in any way an issue of homophobia, it’s one of differing medical opinions. Freeman, who had lied on his donation forms while donating blood in contravention of the ban, was also ordered to pay $10,000 to CBS for filing false paperwork.Ĭanada’s gay community has laboured long and hard to achieve deserved recognition of their equality.
This week, the Ontario Superior Court ruled against Kyle Freeman, a gay man who had challenged the right of Canadian Blood Services (CBS) to refuse to accept blood donations from any man that has ever had sex with another man. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.
