South African Gays Not Satisfied With Revisions To Blood Donor Plan

06 Oct 2006- Cape Town-South Africa- Changes to the National Blood Service requirements for being a blood donor that permit gays who have been celibate for six months are still discriminatory and could lead to a legal challenge South Africa's oldest LGBT civil rights organization warns.

Earlier this week the blood service announced the change in a bid to stave off a threatened lawsuit.

But the Triangle Project says the change still treats gays differently that the rest of South African society. Even though gays present only a small fraction of the estimated 5.5 million people infected with HIV gay men are the only group which have donor restrictions placed on them.

A new questionnaire prepared by the blood service to be introduced in November asks prospective donors if they have had male to male sex within the past six months. 

Triangle Project spokesperson Glenn de Swardt called the question irrational. 

"The risk isn't gay men. It's unsafe sex," De Swardt told the Cape Argus. He said that the form needed to eliminate any reference to sexual orientation and focus on high-risk sex.

"Unprotected anal sex is high risk," he said - an activity that many heterosexuals engaged in and many gay men avoided. "The implication is that anal sex is endemic to gay men which is absolute nonsense."

De Swardt said that there is no South African data available to support the notion that gay men are a high risk group.

LGBT rights groups have been fighting the restrictions on gay donors for more than a year.  In January members of one group picketed blood donor clinics throughout the country.

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