4 minute read
Blood, sex and bias
Izabela Chmielewska
Government legislation prevents sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating blood even if it’s perfectly safe to use. Izabela Chmielewska speaks to the men campaigning for change.
When Ethan Spibey’s grandfather underwent a major operation that left him in need of over eight pints of blood, it was thanks to generous blood donors that he survived. As a gesture of good faith, he and his family decided to be blood donors themselves so they could help families like theirs in the future.
Yet when Ethan turned up at a blood bank, he found himself being turned away.
“I wasn’t ‘out’ to my parents at the time and I didn’t realise the restrictions on gay and bisexual men existed. Reading the [form] where it asked if I was sexually active with a man, my stomach plummeted, knowing I couldn’t do the same thing that someone else had done for my grandad.”
As it stands, men must wait three months after having oral or anal sex with another man before donating blood to the NHS. Many gay and bisexual men, Ethan included, believe they are being prevented from giving blood that could potentially save lives due to outdated legislation they say, is rooted in discrimination.
After Ethan’s failed attempt to donate blood, he decided to set up the Freedom To Donate, an organisation that campaigns against the existing UK policy. Freedom To Donate successfully lobbied the government to change the deferral period for gay and bisexual men who are sexually active from 12 months to three in 2017. However, Ethan says the fight is nowhere near finished.
Photography: Ethan Spibey
“Bundling the whole gay and bi group together ignores the reality within that group,” he explained, “there are potentially thousands of safe donors, and that’s why we are asking for the government to consider an individualised risk-based policy.”
There has been a 40% drop in blood donations in the past ten years in the UK, according to Freedom To Donate. Under this new proposed policy, each individual wanting to donate blood will have to go through thorough assessments based on their medical history, as well as sexual activity, not just their sexuality. This, Ethan believes, would considerably increase the number of individuals donating blood, and as a result, the number of lives being saved.
Welsh-born poet and activist RJ Arkhipov supports Ethan’s cause and campaign through art. Using his own blood as ink, he creates powerful poems. His film Visceral: The Poetry of Blood shows Arkhipov writing in blood to protest against the current legislation.
“There is an undeniable poetry to blood. In both the science and the symbolism of blood, there is great beauty and ambiguity,” Arkhipov says, “It is an unfixed and universal element on which to focus my poetry.”
He believes, “It hardly seems appropriate to exclude long-term monogamous gay couples from donating blood while permitting heterosexual donors who might be engaging in risky, unprotected sex with multiple partners.”
According to Arkhipov, speaking “openly and unapologetically” about sex would help reduce the stigma surrounding it, regardless of whether it is homosexual or heterosexual.
He urges others to not “be afraid to criticise the organisations that uphold the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) policy, including the NHS. "This change," he says, "will be achieved as much through grassroots activism as through lobbying the policymakers.”
“Much of the issue with this particular inequality is that it is relatively unknown among the wider population. The first step to resolving a problem is acknowledging its existence.” Arkhipov adds. A ccording to the NHS, the three-month abstinence time-frame exists because, while all donations are screened, there is a small chance the tests they carry out to detect bloodborne viruses will not be able to pick up recently acquired infections.
The next generation is vital in actively creating change and equality among the LGBTQ+ community, and that includes ending blood donation bias. Freedom To Donate’s petition to change the law has already had 61,000 signatures as well as 4,904 ‘pledged pints’ from those who would like to currently cannot do so. Freedom To Donate say that this shows how much potentially lifesaving blood could be made available under new legislation around donating.
Ethan encourages students to get involved in the campaign in any way they can to help spread the word. “It’s easy to say that a person’s voice doesn’t matter, but Freedom To Donate was started by four people in their spare time, so just imagine what we could do if others got involved and helped spread the message,” he says.
For those interested in getting involved, Ethan urges, “Support and share the petition. People can say some pretty nasty things, but the fact is, we’ve helped to rewrite the policy, which is a breakthrough for gay and bisexual men. So, no matter what people may say, we’re making a tangible difference, and that means more to us than anything else.”
Learn about blood donation bias at freedomtodonate.co.uk
