A year that homosexuals donate blood like the others

It’s a birthday that delights more than one. November 1st marks one year since blood donation was opened to men who have sexual relations with men according to the same criteria as others. Indeed, until November 2023, this was not the case. And before 2017, donating blood was simply prohibited for them.

Until last year, gay men had to wait twelve months after their last intercourse to be eligible for donation. For heterosexual people and homosexual women, that four months had to pass. You still have to wait twelve months when you have had more than two different partners in the last four months.

Moral values ​​put to the test of science

But how could this discrimination last for so long? Response from Florent Jouinot, who is responsible for regional coordination at Swiss Aid against AIDS, and who was previously part of the VoGay association: “It was the marker of a societal representation of what the sexuality. Sexual and couple relationships between men are not put on the same level as male-female relationships. These are moral values ​​that have influenced regulations for some time, even though science proved that it was possible to broaden the criteria.”

Because Florent Jouinot reminds us: “Requesting abstinence for one year is not scientifically necessary. So there was no reason to discriminate against someone based on their sexuality. The tools used to detect the presence of infectious agents in samples from different blood donations are very effective, they make it possible to exclude their presence very early.

Thus, last year’s measure “marks the end of discrimination, and the pragmatic consideration of reality. And we must also keep in mind that unsubstantiated discrimination will increase the number of people who lie. This was demonstrated in theFrench study Complidon in particular,” adds Florent Jouinot.

Excluded while reserves were lacking

Jan Brönnimann, a 25-year-old student in criminal sciences in Lausanne, discovered this discrimination somewhat by chance: “I received an email from the university in 2022, which informed us that a blood donation was being organized. on campus. I told myself that it was great and that I was going to participate!”

The student knew that there could be exceptions for men who have sex with other men, but he did not know which ones: “I took the test on the blood donation website and, when I indicated that I had sex with men, that was a potential problem. When I called the hotline to inquire, I was told that I must have been sober for a year.”

A tattoo that defers its gift

From then on, Jan felt discriminated against. “I didn’t understand why I wasn’t treated the same as heterosexual people. That’s when I started learning more about it. What particularly shocked me was to see that blood supplies were running out, but that a large part of the population was being excluded, even though there was no longer any valid reason to do so.”

Since the opening of the criteria, the young man has not yet been able to donate blood: “I got a tattoo recently and that represents a risk. But it’s something I plan to do eventually. I’m going to do it.”

Almost a duty

Pascal Messerli, former president of the Dialogai association, has already donated blood three times. “As soon as I found out it was possible, I signed up. I had an appointment on the 1st^is November in the early hours! My brother has been donating blood for a long time and it has always made me want to do it too. For me, it’s almost a duty. It costs nothing, it’s easy to do, it doesn’t hurt and it’s very quick.”

The man also received the news with great emotion: “I was extremely relieved, because I was very upset. It was one of the last injustices there was for gay people in our country. We could already get married, but not give our blood.”

Finally, the simplification of the criteria does not seem to have led to a rush at donation centers. Questioned on this subject, Interregional Transfusion CRS, the organization which oversees blood donation in Switzerland responds that “all regional blood transfusion services have not noted an increase in the number of male blood donors since the removal of the criterion of donation.” The organization does not keep statistics on this subject either, given that sexual relations between men are no longer a differentiated condition.

Switzerland was lagging behind

It has now been a year since the criteria were relaxed for us. But what is the situation among our European neighbors? A quick overview.

Laure Schmidt has been a trainee journalist in the Switzerland section of the Tamedia editorial team since September 2023. She previously studied social sciences and psychology at the University of Lausanne.More info

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