Just Saying | Don’t donate blood if you’re gay – they don’t deserve your help
Yonden Lhatoo says the Hong Kong Red Cross requirement for gay men to abstain from sex for one year before donating blood smacks of discrimination and adds insult to injury
Are Hong Kong’s gay men desperate to donate blood? Is it a privilege they are not worthy of?
You would be forgiven for thinking so, considering how the Hong Kong Red Cross this week finally tackled the question of accepting blood donations from men who have sex with men.
In a long-awaited display of benevolence, the humanitarian organisation announced that, starting from September 25, gay and bisexual men would be allowed to give blood – provided they hadn’t had sex with men for a “safety” period of 12 months.
On the very same day, the Red Cross blood transfusion service sent out a public appeal for donations, warning that “current inventories have fallen to an alarming level”.
So, let me get this straight: their blood banks are running dry and they’re out in the streets, cap in hand, but the beggars still want to be choosers. Oh, the humanity.
Relaxed rules to allow gay men in Hong Kong to donate blood
The discrimination is apparently justified because we’re following the example set by developed countries such as the United States, France and Australia, and they can’t be wrong, can they. Mainland China maintains a lifetime ban on gay donors, and so does Singapore.