In this article from the Los Angeles Times, “Keeping Our Blood Supply Safe”, the author argues whether gay people should be allowed to donate blood or not. This article was written for the general public and for the homosexuals. The author states many facts and gives many statistics about the past and other blood donors, and how many of them actually transmitted any diseases. The author stated that there are many gay people who have wanted to donate blood in the past, but had been denied due to them having intercourse with another male. The author then goes on to say that there could be a possibility in the future for the homosexual community to donate blood because they have already extended so far with the gay marriage and all. Although they might be able to it might be restricted to men who have been sexually active in the past year. Finally he goes on to say that a recent study has shown that the actual risk of a gay person transmitting any disease is very small but it could cause a large problem. There are very few gay men who have actually restrained from sex in the past 5 years and of those there are probably very few who would even want to donate blood. The author presented a strong and valid argument based on many facts and statistics.
I agree with the author that gay people should be allowed to donate blood, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to use that blood, and there are many tests that can be done to detect any sort of diseases in the blood. I know because I have donated blood many times and they always take four bottles of samples for testing. They should not be discriminated against just because they are homosexuals. Yes, there was a time in the 1970’s and 1980’s when many thousands of people had been infected with AIDs, but with the technology now it can be detected almost right away in most cases. I believe that if someone wants to donate blood they should be able to, because even if someone were not homosexual, what’s the guarantee that they do not have an STD? Or some other disease of the blood?
