Stan Handshy remembers the first and only time he tried to donate blood.
A worker at the blood bank asked him if he had had sex with another man since 1977. When Handshy replied that he had, the worker told him he should leave.
"I was very embarrassed," he said. "And shortly thereafter, I became very angry."
Now, Handshy and Queers & Allies, a Kansas University advocacy group, are launching a campaign against the Food and Drug Administration's policy that bans sexually active gay men from donating blood.
Group members say the policy is based on stereotype; FDA officials say it's based on science.
The FDA doesn't allow men who have had sex with other men since 1977 to give blood. The policy which is based on the outbreak of HIV and AIDS in the United States in the late '70s has been in place since the early 1980s.
It is one of several "limiters" the FDA has placed on donating blood. Others include intravenous drug use, health conditions and travel where disease is prevalent.
"They're trying to balance out having the safest possible blood supply with the need to have an adequate blood supply," said FDA spokeswoman Lenore Gelb.
Although all blood is tested, there is no guarantee that the tests will be conducted properly or that they will detect new strains of diseases, she said.
Gelb said the ban is based on statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which show that more gay men contract HIV and AIDS than any other group. During 1999, 15,464 new AIDS cases were reported among gay men, compared to 10,138 among IV drug users and 7,139 among heterosexual men.
Handshy said the policy should distinguish between protected and unprotected sex, not the gender of sexual partners. He points to an FDA regulation that requires only a one-year waiting period after a man has sex with a prostitute before he can give blood.
"Basically, it's implying that it's more socially acceptable to have sex with a prostitute than having sex with another gay man," he said.
Handshy, Queers & Allies' Student Senate representative, said he would push for a senate resolution condemning the gay ban. Group members also are asking supporters to write protest letters to the FDA.
The FDA committee that oversees blood collection narrowly approved maintaining the ban last fall. Alternative plans such as banning donations from men who have had sex with other men during the last one or five years have been considered.
Representatives from blood banks said they rarely hear complaints from gay men who wish to donate blood. But Chris Braudis, director of donor recruitment for the Community Blood Center, said workers do hear comments on the issue on the KU campus. The Community Blood Center operates a donation site at Sixth Street and Gateway Drive.
"We know there are a lot of gay men out there who would like to give blood," he said. "Our position is basically we need to follow the FDA guidelines."
Dr. Lowell Tilzer, chief medical officer for the Central Plains Region of the American Red Cross, said the ban isn't discriminatory.
"This is a proven high-risk group," he said. "If you have sex female-to-female, you're gay and you're allowed to give blood."
He said he sometimes receives complaints about questions on sexual history, but they're not from gay men.
"It's more that they're embarrassed," he said. "How do you ask a priest if he's had sex with a prostitute in the last 12 months? How do you ask a nun? It hurts their sensibility so much to even be asked."
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