WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) and Senator John Kerry (MA) offered support for new research and urged revising an outdated policy banning gay and bisexual men from donating blood. Text of a June 8 letter sent to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which was signed by 61 members of the House and Senate, is below.
"Patients across the country desperately need life-saving blood transfusions, yet perfectly healthy would-be donors are turned away based solely on sexual orientation," said Rep. Quigley. "Equality for the LGBT community is closer than ever but outdated and discriminatory policies like this must evolve to match advancements in science and technology."
"We've been working on this a long time and I applaud Secretary Sebelius for taking this important step toward ending the lifetime ban on gay men donating blood, and instead relying on the science of today not the myths of twenty years ago. I'm confident that the findings of these new studies will pave the way to get this policy off the books," said Sen. Kerry. "We'll at last have an informed evaluation of the final roadblocks to ending a ban against healthy, responsible Americans donating blood."
The HHS pilot study will assess alternative blood donor deferral criteria for men who have sex with men. Currently, any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 is banned for life from donating blood. The policy was enacted in the 1980s, when the risk of AIDS from transfusion was first recognized. However, since then, technological advances in blood testing, policy changes in other nations, and vocal opposition from the blood banking community have spurred a reexamination of the outdated policy.
Rep. Quigley and Sen. Kerry have led bicameral efforts calling for a revised policy, first sending a letter to HHS in June 2010. That same month, the HHS Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability reviewed the lifetime ban and recommended the policy be revised because it was "suboptimal," allowing high-risk individuals to donate while preventing donations from low-risk individuals, such as healthy gay and bisexual men. The Advisory Committee's full recommendations can be found here.
A member of the Congressional Equality Caucus, Rep. Quigley has been a tireless advocate for repealing the blood ban and first called for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reexamine its antiquated policy in 2009. He has made LGBT equality one of his top legislative priorities and is a co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would ensure that all couples are treated fairly under federal law. Most recently, he offeredlegislation that would have expanded the Violence Against Women Act to include the LGBT community.
Senator Kerry has been a longtime advocate for updating this discriminatory policy. In 2010, he wrote two separate letters to the FDA urging them to abolish the policy, published an op-ed on the ban in Bay Windows, New England's largest GLBT newspaper, and submitted testimony to the HHS Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability urging the lifetime ban's repeal.
Text of the bicameral letter is below:
June 8, 2012
The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary
Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201
Dear Secretary Sebelius:
We are writing to express our support for the recent Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) request for information (RFI) on a pilot to assess alternative blood donor deferral criteria for men who have sex with men (MSM). We view this RFI and the pilot to assess alternative donor criteria as important steps toward revising today's deferral policy and assessing the feasibility of allowing healthy gay and bisexual men to donate blood while maintaining the safety of our blood supply.
As you know, the current policy has been in place since the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, when health officials banned any man who has had sex with a man, even once since 1977, from donating blood for life. In the 27 years since, we have seen vast advances in blood screening technology, policy changes in other nations, and staunch opposition from the nation's blood banks who have called the current ban "medically and scientifically unwarranted."
Still, healthy gay and bisexual men continue to be banned for life, while the FDA allows a man who has had sex with an HIV-positive woman to give blood after waiting only one year. This double standard is inconsistent and indefensible. Our current policies turn away healthy, willing donors, even when we face serious blood shortages.
Recognizing the shortfalls of the current permanent deferral policy, and following the urging of many Members of Congress, HHS convened the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability (ACBSA) in June of 2010 to review the lifetime deferral requirement. The Advisory Committee concluded that the current ban on gay and bisexual men is "suboptimal" because it allows high-risk individuals to donate while prohibiting low-risk donors from contributing, and it should be changed as a result.
This recognition of the inadequacy of the current lifetime ban of MSM donors by a panel of independent health experts marked an important turning point in the debate over this outdated policy. It prompted HHS to pursue a variety of studies to examine the feasibility of altering the policy to allow low-risk MSM to donate while still ensuring rigorous blood safety.
We applaud the decision by HHS to pursue these studies examining the MSM blood donor deferral policy and we support the decision to conduct a pilot to examine alternative blood donor criteria for MSM. As HHS designs the pilot study, we request the department take into account the following considerations.
With regards to the examination of donor selection measures, we encourage the pilot to explore ways to distinguish high-risk MSM from low-risk MSM in order to avoid deferring low-risk, healthy, and viable blood donors from within the MSM community from donating blood. For instance, the donor questionnaire could collect information on whether or not the donor is in a monogamous relationship or
The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius
June 7, 2012
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if the donor engages in effective preventive measures. In this way the donor questionnaire could assess the risk level of all potential donors, regardless of sexual orientation.
We believe that any change in blood donor deferral policy must be guided by the science of ensuring the highest level of safety for our blood supply. We remain concerned that a blanket deferral of MSM for any length of time both perpetuates the unwarranted discrimination against the bisexual and gay community and prevents healthy men from donating blood without a definitive finding of added benefit to the safety of the blood supply.
Additionally, as you conduct these studies, we urge you to continue to be vigilant in your efforts to avoid any real or perceived unwarranted discriminatory treatment of the MSM community in the language that is used and in procedure.
We are pleased by the progress HHS is making toward revising today's policy banning gay and bisexual men from donating blood and we encourage the department to move swiftly to execute this promising pilot and to use its results to appropriately revise today's discriminatory policy. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Rep. Mike Quigley
Illinois' 5th District
Sen. John F. Kerry
Massachusetts
Sen. Daniel Akaka
Hawaii
Sen. Mark P. Begich
Alaska
Sen. Michael F. Bennett
Colorado
Sen. Maria E. Cantwell
Washington
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
New York
Sen. Patricia L. Murray
Washington
Sen. Bernard Sanders
Vermont
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
New Hampshire
Sen. Mark E. Udall
Colorado
Rep. Gary Ackerman
New York's 5th District
Rep. Howard L. Berman
California's 28th District
Rep. Lois Capps
California's 23rd District
Rep. Michael E. Capuano
Massachusetts' 8th District
Rep. Russ Carnahan
Missouri's 3rd District
Rep. Judy Chu
California's 32nd District
Rep. David N. Cicilline
Rhode Island's 1st District
Rep. Hansen Clarke
Michigan's 13rd District
Rep. Steve Cohen
Tennessee's 9th District
Rep. Joe Courtney
Connecticut's 2nd District
Rep. Joseph Crowley
New York's 7th District
Rep. Susan A. Davis
California's 53rd District
Rep. Diana DeGette
Colorado's 1st District
Rep. Theodore E. Deutch
Florida's 19th District
Rep. Keith Ellison
Minnesota's 5th District
Rep. Sam Farr
California's 17th District
Rep. Barney Frank
Massachusetts'4th District
Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez
Texas' 20th District
Rep. Al Green
Texas' 9th District
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva
Arizona's 9th District
Rep. Louis V. Gutierrez
Illinois' 4th District
Rep. Alcee Hastings
Florida's 23rd District
Rep. Martin Heinrich
New Mexico's 1st District
Rep. Brian Higgins
New York's 27th District
Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey
New York's 22nd District
Rep. Rush D. Holt
New Jersey's 12th District
Rep. Michael M. Honda
California's 15th District
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee
Texas' 18th District
Rep. Barbara Lee
California's 9th District
Rep. Sander M. Levin
Michigan's 12th District
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney
New York's 14th District
Rep. Edward J. Markey
Massachusetts' 7th District
Rep. Betty McCollum
Minnesota's 4th District
Rep. Jim McDermott
Washington's 7th District
Rep. James P. McGovern
Massachusetts' 3rd District
Rep. Gwen Moore
Wisconsin's 4th District
Rep. James P. Moran
Virginia's 8th District
Rep. Jerrold Nadler
New York's 8th District
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton
District of Columbia
Rep. John W. Olver
Massachusetts' 1st District
Rep. Chellie Pingree
Maine's 1st District
Rep. Jared Polis
Colorado's 2nd District
Rep. Steven R. Rothman
New Jersey's 9th District
Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky
Illinois' 9th District
Rep. Jose E. Serrano
New York's 16th District
Rep. John F. Tierney
Massachusetts' 6th District
Rep. Niki Tsongas
Massachusetts' 5th District
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Florida's 20th District
Rep. Henry A. Waxman
California's 30th District
Rep. Peter Welch
Vermont, At-Large
Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey
California's 6th District
Cc: Dr. James Berger, Acting Director for Blood Safety and Availability
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of the Assistant Secretary.
Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Health,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
