Reply #5: Women, especially black women, are contracting HIV far faster than are MSM [View All]

[TechBear_Seattle]

(MSM = men who have sex with men. Many MSM do not self-identify as gay or bisexual.)

Over the last decade, HIV has become a predominantly heterosexual disease. Applying the FDA's "logic," black women should be banned for life from ever donating blood lest the nation's blood supply become contaminated by a high risk group. When this fact was presented to the FDA earlier this year, the official response was a letter claiming that modern testing and screening procedures were sufficient so that donations from this high risk group did not pose a threat. And a few months latter, the FDA reiterated its ban on blood from MSM, claiming the very lie that you are spouting.

If black women can donate, why can't MSM? If men who have sex with men are a "high risk" group that can and should be banned from donating blood, why is the statistically higher risk group of black women allowed to continue donating?

As I said, it comes down to bigotry.