Blood4

DONATION NOT DISCRIMINATION   

NUS LGBT Policy

The NUS LGBT Campaign, strongly believes that the blanket, and lifetime, ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men should be removed. We believe that discriminating against a group of society based on a stereotype is wrong. Furthermore, the policy of the National Blood Service further pushes the idea that HIV/AIDS is a ‘gay disease’. The current criteria for blood donations centres around perceived risk of an entire group. The NUS LGBT Campaign is pushing for a system to be implemented based on actual risk. The LGBT community is very diverse and different people live in very different ways. It is wrong to assume that everyone is automatically high risk and therefore wrong to automatically ban every gay and bisexual man from giving blood.

A man who has had sex with a man once in his life, before the emergence of AIDS, is treated in the same way as someone who has had unprotected sex with multiple partners in the last month, and an individual’s sexual history is completely ignored. In addition, people who have engaged in unprotected heterosexual sex in high risk areas are free to donate after twelve months.

Other countries, including EU countries subject to the same European legislation as the UK, have already lifted the ban on donations from gay and bisexual men citing epidemiological evidence and discrimination as the primary reasons for this change in policy.

We believe that if the NBS is prepared to change the rules for one group of people to get more donors, as was done in November 2005, when the age limit was increased from 60 to 65, then the rules should be looked at again for gay and bisexual men. We also believe the NBS should reassess their policy to allow healthy gay and bisexual men at low risk to be allowed to donate blood. That includes those in a monogamous relationship and those who have not had sex in a defined period of time.

The following motion was passed at NUS LGBT Conference 2006 and forms the main basis of our policy on this issue.

1. The high profile campaign to change the homophobic policies of the National Blood Transfusion Services being run by the NUS Scotland LGBT campaign and Liverpool Guild LGBT.
2. The newly adopted stance of the American Red Cross which states that it is time for the American Ban on Gay blood donations to be lifted and a time limited deferral to be put in place
3. The current stance of Blood Transfusion organisations in Australia, Spain, Italy, South Africa and most recently Portugal, who all accept donations from Gay men.
4. The changing epidemiological profile of HIV/Aids which now sees infections amongst heterosexuals increasing at a much larger rate than homosexual people.

Conference Further Believes:

1. That the NUS Scotland blood day of action on march 9th was a huge success, increasing participation in the campaign and informing the public about the discrimination faced by gay and bisexual men.
2. That changes to blood donation regulations in other countries is strengthening the case for the permanent ban on gay and bisexual blood donations to be lifted in the UK.
3. That Gay and Bisexual men should be allowed to donate blood in line with other blood service regulations.
4. That a time limited deferment would be better placed to protect the nation’s blood supply because it would be based upon an individual’s behaviour not their sexual orientation.

Conference Resolves:

1. To continue as a priority the blood transfusion campaign using the NUS Scotland campaign as an example of good practice
2. To continue the constructive engagement with the Blood Transfusion services.
3. To continue to contact LGBT organisations abroad to share good practice and keep up to date with an ever evolving picture across the globe.<
4. To work with NUS–USI LGBT, NUS Scotland LGBT and NUS Wales LGB to coordinate the campaign nationally.

All policy that the NUS LGBT Campaign works on is decided by students that self-define as LGBT at the NUS LGBT Conference. Every NUS-affiliated students’ union has the opportunity to send up to four students to this annual conference. Motions for discussion can be put forward by any selfdefining LGBT student. Motions are debated by the delegates at the conference, and votes are taken. Policy remains in place for five years unless superseded by contradictory policy or conference decides not to allow the policy to lapse.

The LGBT Campaign is an autonomous part of NUS. We believe that autonomy is important, since it is only LGBT students that have had to live with and suffer discrimination on a day to day basis, and only LGBT students that have the authenticity of experience to decide the policy of the campaign. This does not mean that we do not wish to involve heterosexual people in our campaigns, simply that we reserve the right to decide what we campaign on for ourselves.

Throughout the year, the policy of the NUS LGBT Campaign is taken forward by the LGBT Officers and committee, all of whom are elected at the conference. This year the officers and committee are:-

NUS LGBT Officers
            
Scott Cuthbertson            Claire Anderson
LGBT Officer (Open Place)  LGBT Officer (Women’s Place)