From the San Jose Mercury News:

Last month, Harbor High School in Santa Cruz held its annual blood drive with the American Red Cross. After volunteering for hours, student body president Ronnie Childers waited in line to donate his own blood.
He was turned away.

Ronnie is gay, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration bars any boy or man who has had sex with another man since 1977 from donating blood. The FDA says gay men are far more likely to be infected with HIV than the general population, so the agency has a duty to protect the nation’s blood supply.

Ronnie’s experience inflamed the Harbor High School community and has reignited an ongoing debate about the FDA’s policy. The fact that gay men are prohibited from donating blood — regardless of their sexual activity, safe-sex practices or HIV status — has rankled the gay community for years. But the American Red Cross and other national organizations that regularly run blood drives are also pushing the FDA to revise the policy, which has been in place since AIDS first hit in the early 1980s.

Both the disease and the process by which blood is screened have evolved dramatically in the past 25 years. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is increasingly transmitted between heterosexuals.

Women now account for more than one-quarter of all new HIV and AIDS diagnoses in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And blood banks are using new screening technology that identifies the virus at an early stage of infection.

“The government is not prepared to deal with the changing climate of the AIDS epidemic,” said Chris Weber, development director at the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose.

High school students contribute 8 percent of the blood the American Red Cross collects in Northern California, and many blood banks have launched ad campaigns to encourage 17- to 24-year-olds to become lifelong donors. At the same time, though, a new generation of openly gay high school and college students is questioning and protesting what they say is a discriminatory policy.

Multiple exclusions

Voluntary blood donors are asked to fill out a health questionnaire that could lead to them being barred from donating. Intravenous drug users are turned away, and a person who recently got a tattoo, for example, has to wait for a year before giving blood. Pregnant women are also not eligible to donate.

Ronnie, who came out as gay at age 15, truthfully answered yes to the question about sexual contact with men. Once he completed the survey, a Red Cross employee sheepishly informed him that he’d been put on a list of “deferred” donors — individuals disqualified from donating blood. Ronnie then had to call a toll-free number to find out why he was barred and was stunned to discover that gay men are excluded. He worries that other students could be inadvertently “outed,” or humiliated or embarrassed, while trying to donate.

“It’s a lifetime mark. I can’t ever donate blood,” Ronnie, 17, said. “People don’t know that this policy exists and how discouraging it is.”

Blood is also desperately needed. This past week, the American Red Cross announced that several blood types are at extremely low levels in Northern California. The Blood Centers of the Pacific in San Francisco is also asking for immediate donations of all blood types to boost critically low supplies.

Since his story first appeared in local newspapers, fellow students and school officials have rallied behind Ronnie. But he also has received an avalanche of hate mail — mostly letters sent to him at Harbor High. Some warned that they know where he goes to school, and local police are taking the letters seriously. Gina Lyons, Ronnie’s mother, asked the Mercury News not to photograph her son out of fear for his safety.

“As a mom it tears my heart apart that so many people are so damned ignorant,” said Lyons, who also feels the FDA policy needs to be revisited. “My son doesn’t have HIV, and he was turned away. Meanwhile, there are a lot of girls who have unprotected sex, and they can donate blood with no question.”

National groups that collect the bulk of donated blood also feel that a lifetime ban on gay male donors is outdated. In March, the American Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks and America’s Blood Centers jointly asked the FDA to review its guidelines. They feel a fairer compromise would be a one-year ban after homosexual activity instead of a lifelong ban.

The chance of getting a unit of HIV-infected blood is 1 in 2 million, and blood banks now use nucleic acid testing, which can detect viruses like HIV or hepatitis early.

“The testing systems are extremely robust, because we test for antibodies and the virus itself,” said Michael Busch, vice president for Research and Scientific Affairs of the Blood Centers of the Pacific. “But some feel that just because we have excellent testing doesn’t mean we should relax the donor pool.”

Karen Riley, a spokeswoman for the FDA, said the agency periodically reviews the policy. But countless discussions always result in the same decision.

“We understand that our recommendation for permanent deferral has the effect of deferring all gay men, but it really comes down to epidemiology,” Riley said. “Men who have sex with men are 60 times more likely to be HIV-infected than the general population. It becomes very sensitive at a high-school level when a child is turned away, but the policy is in place for the protection of the nation’s blood supply.”

Not all blood donors, of course, truthfully fill out the questionnaires. And some donors may be unaware that they are infected with the HIV virus.

School board support

Nancy Tocchini, the principal at Harbor High, is proud of running a tolerant campus. It has an active gay student group, and in May the school will host the countywide Queer Youth Awards. She was surprised to learn that the FDA bans gay men from donating blood.

“I had no idea that this policy existed,” said Tocchini, who said that Harbor High students are planning a second blood drive this spring. “The school board is coming forth with a resolution in support of reviewing the FDA mandates in place.”

Some Harbor High students have sent letters of concern to the state Legislature. And state Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, wants to meet Ronnie to offer support.

“I give Ronnie a lot of credit for speaking out. It took a lot of courage,” said Laird, who as Santa Cruz mayor in the early ’80s was one of the nation’s first openly gay mayors. “The FDA policy is out of date and is based on facts that existed a quarter of a century ago. I’m worried that we’re cutting off a potential source of blood that is sorely needed.’

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