In order to donate blood, a homosexual American had to give up all sexual relations for a year. He tells.
Jay Franzone has a sense of sacrifice. At 21, this young American is among the very first homosexuals to be able to donate blood in the United States. A very altruistic approach, which demanded of him an even greater generosity, perhaps, than a few drops of blood: Jay Franzone had to abstain from all sexual relations for a year.
“Not even a blowjob”
A 365-day desert crossing, a necessary condition for homosexuals to be able to donate blood. Across the Atlantic, the ban for this population was lifted in December 2015. However, this authorization was accompanied by a constraint, which some might consider heavy: sexual abstinence for a year preceding the donation.
A challenge that Jay Franzone has agreed to take up in the name of solidarity and public health, but with some reservations… Quoted by HBO’s VICE News, the young man indeed denounces a form of injustice. “I didn’t even perform fellatio. It’s a tiny, incalculable risk (…) so I haven’t had oral sex for a year. But my best mate can sleep with eight different women in a week, unprotected, and go donate blood. No problem. There is something fundamentally wrong with this ”.
Identical situation in France
For Jay Franzone, who recounts his experience in the New York Times, it is time to change the legislation to bring it closer to that of Spain, or Italy, two countries where donations are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
In addition, the young man recalls that if the restrictions weighing on blood donation by homosexuals were justified in the 1980s, they no longer have any real scientific basis. An observation shared by the American Red Cross, the American Medical Association and the American Blood Bank, which in 2014 judged the ban which then weighed on homosexuals to be “discriminatory”, and stressed that it was not based on “any scientific basis” .
In France, blood donation by homosexuals has been authorized since the summer of 2016. In the case of plasma donation, the requirements are the same as for a heterosexual person: to be in a stable couple for four months or to remain abstinent for the same period. . But for a man who has sex with men to be eligible for total donation, abstinence must last for one year.
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