A gay student in Santa Cruz, Calif. who was barred from donating blood because of his sexual history has stirred debate among Santa Cruz school officials who organize campus blood drives.
Ronnie Childers, 17, student body president at Harbor High School, told the Associated Press he volunteered at a blood drive at his school earlier this month for five hours and waited in line for three more before being turned away.
"I was turned away because of my sexual contacts," Childers said to the AP. "The reasoning behind me not being able to give blood is ridiculous. ... It made me feel like an outcast."
According to U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations, a man who has had a sexual encounter with another man since 1977 is ineligible to donate.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that officials at the FDA could not be reached for comment. Red Cross officials would only say of the guidelines that the agency adheres to all FDA rules and regulations for blood establishments. The Red Cross has petitioned the FDA for some relaxation of the rules regarding gay men.
Santa Cruz city schools officials said they were reconsidering whether to have blood drives on campus if students were required to divulge information about their sexual activities.
"As the blood supply has become so politicized over time we need to check our policies," Santa Cruz City Schools Trustee Cynthia Hawthorne told the AP.
To many, the rules are outdated, a vestige of the AIDS panic of the 1980s, before education and medical advances slowed the spread of the virus in this country and made the blood supply more secure.
"The policy was built at a time when circumstances were really different," said Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who is gay, to the Sentinel. "Now that all blood is tested, there shouldn't be an unnecessary weeding-out of people who are capable of giving blood at a time when there are shortages."
Meanwhile, blood agencies must enforce the rules.
"The most important thing is to provide blood to the people who need it," Red Cross spokeswoman Sara O'Brien told the Sentinel. "We're going to go by any regulations rather than risk being shut down. ... A boycott hurts a lot of innocent people. It's not the best way to get your point across." And students are a vital part of blood collection efforts, accounting for close to 20 percent of all donations.
"We count on students because they're so healthy," O'Brien told the Sentinel.
