Tuesday, June 14, is World Blood Donor Day, but a significant portion of the population is still unable to fulfil its "humanitarian and patriotic duty".
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Australian Red Cross Lifeblood continues to prevent gay and bisexual men, and transgender women, who have had sex with a man in the last three months, from donating blood.
As Equality Tasmania spokesman Rodney Croome points out, that includes people who are in monogamous relationships and who practice safe sex.
Everyone who donates blood should be assessed for their individual risk.
- Rodney Croome
Lifeblood says its policy is not discriminatory, and that it has been cleared by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
"That ban was put in place in the 1980s in order to stop the transmission of HIV through blood donation," Mr Croome said.
"In the 1980s we knew far less about how to detect HIV and how it was transmitted and it was considered a deadly disease.
"It made sense in the 1980s, it no longer makes any sense."
Mr Croome was speaking in support of a new campaign called Let Us Give, which is calling on the Red Cross to lift the ban.
He said a policy change would allow for 25,000 litres of safe blood to be donated by Australians each year.
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He said the policy should be abandoned in favour of a new policy that asks the same question of everyone who donates blood.
"The policy would ask 'have you had anal sex with a new partner in the last few months?'.
"The same questions should be asked of everyone. Everyone who donates blood should be assessed for their individual risk."
The Red Cross policy is predicated on data that shows that the majority of HIV transmission occurs between male sexual partners, which Mr Croome does not dispute.
"But the majority of gay men do not have and will not ever have HIV. The policy reinforces the myth that you're only at risk if you're gay.
"Lifeblood keeps telling Australians blood donation is a humanitarian and patriotic duty, yet it doesn't allow gay men to fulfil that duty.
"It is hard not to take that personally."
Mr Croome said the individual assessment approach has been adopted in many countries with very similar demographics to Australia, including Canada, Britain, France and the Netherlands.
Visit letusgive.com.au for more information and to sign the petition.
Sandy Powell
Court and crime reporter covering the West and North-West of Tasmania for the Advocate.
Court and crime reporter covering the West and North-West of Tasmania for the Advocate.
