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SOU snubs Red Cross By Amber Fossen Ashland Daily Tidings Southern Oregon University students will not host an American Red Cross blood drive this term because they say the eligibility form discriminates against homosexual students. While SOU has participated in blood drives before - including two held on campus earlier this year - several students say the donor eligibility requirements are outdated and discriminate against homosexual men who are barred from contributing blood. Students say the screening process goes against the university's anti-discrimination policy and continues to label AIDS and HIV as a gay men's disease. According to David Adkins-Brown, SOU multicultural senator, a petition to abandon another blood drive circulated throughout campus in early May, bringing the issue to the forefront. "Essentially what the Red Cross is doing is labeling HIV as a gay disease. I feel this misnomer needs to be eradicated," Adkins-Brown said. "From my understanding, it's a rule they made up in the 1980s and people are not up to date." Before potential donors can give blood, they must first read "Guidelines for Volunteer Donor Eligibility." Under the heading "Some people can't be blood donors," it states "If you are a male: Had sex even once with another male since 1977." This line-item exclusion, which first appeared on the eligibility questionnaire form in 1985, frustrates students like Daniel Conner, an SOU senior. "I know I've been yelling about it for years," said Conner, an advocate for the Queer Resource Center at SOU. "I'm a gay man and I don't like being forced to lie to help people." Conner said the exclusion can even impact non-gays. "It also excludes heterosexual men," Conner said. "Just because you slept with someone doesn't mean you identify a sexual preference." According to Lance Trainor, chief medical officer of the Portland-based Pacific Northwest region of the Red Cross, the guidelines are established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "It is a guideline given to the blood donation industry by the FDA and all blood collection industries are required to abide by that rule," Trainor said in a telephone interview. "This was in response to the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s." Trainor said the purpose of screening questions is not to discriminate but to reduce risk. "The goal of these screening questions is to create a safe-as-possible blood supply, and in doing so, individuals who participate in high-risk activities are deferred," he said. According to information from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, men who have sex with men represent the largest proportion of new HIV infections at 42 percent, while men and women infected through heterosexual sex fall second at 33 percent. Injection drug users fall in at 25 percent. Dr. Leslie Holness, medical officer and acting branch chief for the division of blood applications for the FDA, said in a telephone interview that although the screening process is not ideal, it is continuously reviewed by the Blood Products Advisory Committee. "The committee is reluctant to change present guidelines if they seem to be protective," Holness said, noting the FDA receives a lot of questions regarding the exclusion. Echoing Trainor, Holness said the goal is to make the blood supply as safe as possible, which was why the eligibility questionnaire came into existence. "When the HIV test came out in 1983, it was noted there was an interval of time during early infection when the HIV antibody test may be negative, although the infection may still be transmitted," Holness said. "It was clear that some other method had to be used to reduce the risk of HIV-positive blood entering the blood supply." Holness, on the charges of discrimination, said he agreed that the system was not perfect but that "You have to balance how much good you're doing with a safe blood supply with the bad feelings you're stirring in groups of people." The feelings stirred on the SOU campus led SOU student advocate Amanda Guidero - who sits on the SOU Executive Board and also heads on-campus blood drives - to make a judgment call. This term there would be no blood drive, she decided. "It was a very difficult decision to make. It wasn't one that weighed on me lightly," Guidero said. "It took me four days to decide and I can walk away knowing I made the right decision. I do believe those students had a legitimate concern about the blood drive," Guidero said, adding the timing of the event also contributed to decision. "This is not us banning them, though. This is, first of all, an issue of time and second of all, a student concern." Guidero said with new students being sworn into the Student Senate - which traditionally helps organize blood drives - the event would have been difficult to host. However, she said it's good to bring the issue out in the open. "We have their attention, they're listening and willing to make a trip down here to talk to us," she said. Darrin Greenlee, Portland-based director of donor services for the Red Cross, will meet with SOU students on the subject, Guidero said. No date has been set. While acknowledging the importance of donating, Adkins-Brown said he would likely object to future on-campus blood drives. "If it comes up next fall, as multicultural senator, I'll have to bring it up again because you cannot discriminate against groups of people," he said. "The differences and diversity of our campus community is something we support as a student body." 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