Debbie Woodell: Seeing red over blood-donation ban for gays

IT IS TIME TO END the federal ban on blood donations from gay men.

The policy, established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1983 after the rise of the AIDS crisis, is based, at least, on outdated science, and, at worst, on bigotry.

The FDA forbids the use of blood donated by any man who has had sex with another man since 1977, claiming on its Web site that they "have an HIV prevalence . . . 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first-time blood donors and 8,000 times higher than repeat blood donors."

First, how many untold men would lie if asked whether they have had sex with another man? So, there's no guarantee that these potential donors would "self-defer."

Also, the American Red Cross and other blood-donation groups say that blood screening is now sophisticated enough to keep out any HIV-tainted blood, no matter who the donor.

We're taking about an extremely small number of Americans with the virus, according to a recent report.

The National Center for Health Statistics reported last month that fewer than 1 percent of young adults living in U.S. homes - about 600,000 people - are infected with HIV. Though the report does not mention the homeless, prison populations or patients in institutions, safeguards are in place to keep the infected people within those groups out of the blood-donation stream.

That's 600,000 people - men and women, and not only gay men - out of 33 million HIV cases worldwide.

Some organizations and officials are becoming vocal in opposing the FDA. Among the harshest, the president of San Jose State University banned blood drives on campus until the policy is changed.

'WE SEE SO many archaic and discriminatory laws that prevent gay Americans from being full participants in society," Ken Yeager, an openly gay county commissioner in California, recently told the San Jose Mercury News. The Santa Clara County commissioners just voted to oppose the federal ban.

Fewer than 40 percent of Americans are eligible to donate, and only a fraction of them actually do. Lifting the ban - which has survived through two Bush administrations and one Clinton - would allow a few more qualified - healthy - people to give the gift of life.

Don't we need every last drop? *

Debbie Woodell is a Daily News sports desk editor. Her column on lesbian and gay issues appears monthly. Send e-mail to woodeld@phillynews.com.