Outrage As Gay Men Barred From Donating Blood To LGBT Peers In Orlando

In fact, so overwhelming is the support from the community that blood centres are now at capacity.

“I’ve been here 13 years and never seen a response like this,” OneBlood spokesperson Pat Michaels told the Orlando Sentinel.

One donor lining up was Becky Orero, who’d worked at Pulse for five years.

“We have to be here for our community,” she said. “I made sure that I came down here so our friends and family can make it out okay.”

Yet the very fact that queer men – one of the targets in this hate crime – are unable to donate blood is prompting waves of anger. 

Only thing I’d add to saddest tragedy in Orlando: It’s made even more tragic and sad that gay men are prohibited from donating blood to help

— Slade Sohmer (@Slade) June 12, 2016

In 2012, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lifted the lifetime ban on accepting blood donations from gay men, replacing it with regulations that men must wait one year after sexual contact with another man to donate.

Rumours that this ban had been temporarily lifted in the wake of the shooting were quickly squashed.

All FDA guidelines remain in effect for blood donation. There are false reports circulating that FDA rules were being lifted. Not true.

— OneBlood (@my1blood) June 12, 2016

At the moment, blood donation centres are at capacity. Michaels described it as being “a little too much, too soon”, encouraging people to make appointments and return later, when the diminished supply will need to be replenished.

Except, of course, for queer men.

It is illegal for gay men to donate blood. It is legal for anyone to buy the AR-15 assault rifle that spilled the blood of gay men today.

— spencer claus (@spxncxrx) June 12, 2016

i am just so angry because people are being murdered, our community can’t donate blood, and this just keeps happening while the US stands by

— Adam J. Kurtz (@adamjk) June 12, 2016

Maybe it would be easier for gay men to donate blood if they poured it into bullets and then shot it into the recipient?

— Luke O’Neil (@lukeoneil47) June 12, 2016

You know the most sickening thing of all? Gay people don’t even have the right to donate blood to our own dying community today.

— (((Ryan Houlihan))) (@RyanHoulihan) June 12, 2016

Of course, the US is not the only country with these controversial and out-dated bans. Australia also fits squarely into that bracket – just last week we published a piece from Heaps Gay editor Samuel Leighton-Dore on why Australia needs to bin its own outdated bans:“

The ban sends out an incorrect and irresponsible public health message by suggesting that all gay sex is a health risk while all heterosexual sex is safe,” he quoted the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Council as saying.

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have offered their support to the LGBTIQ community, but Clinton’s message is particularly poignant: