Blood center welcomes LGBTQIA+ community donations

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – The Community Blood Center is introducing a new donor screening process that goes away from sexual or gender identity.

The region is currently experiencing a blood emergency at CBC with dangerously low levels of O-positive, O-negative, and platelets. The CBC said the region’s blood supply is well below the optimal 5-7 days and types O-positive, O-negative, B-negative, and platelets are critically low.

CBC Director of Public Relations Chelsey Smith said, “We’re going to ask about recent sexual history and go from there. It’ll be based on individual donor assessment and no longer based on gender identity, sexual identity, or sexual orientation.”

Shortages are happening all across the country with multiple centers urgently calling for blood donations. So, the CBC is taking a step forward to get to accepting all to help as it is implementing the Individual Donor Assessment.

“For decades, we have strongly advocated for scientifically-based changes to the FDA policies regarding gay and bisexual men, and this recent decision by the FDA is a huge step toward making blood donation more inclusive,” said Patsy Shipley, Vice President at Community Blood Center. “We look forward to welcoming these new donors to our centers and blood drives, especially following a tough summer with low donor turnout.”

This comes following the Food and Drug Administration’s final guidance establishing the donor screening process.

The CBC said in preparation for this change, CBC has completed the adoption of the donor history questionnaire, updated and validated computer systems regulated by the FDA, trained staff, and updated operational procedures.

CBC provides more than 90% of the blood used by hospitals throughout the greater Kansas City metropolitan area – as well as eastern Kansas and western Missouri. It provides nearly 200,000 blood products each year to over 60 area hospitals and relies on volunteer donors each day.

“Broadening our donor pool in this way can only help us and it will only help patients as well,” said Smith.

According to the CBC, In 1983, the FDA instituted a lifetime deferral on blood donations for gay and bisexual men in order to reduce the chance of HIV in the blood supply at a time when testing was limited or non-existent.

In 2015, the FDA moved to a 12-month deferral for men who have sex with men in response to comprehensive testing capabilities and data demonstrating safety in shortened deferral.

The policy was revised again in 2020 to the current 3-month deferral.

Chair of the City of Kansas City LGBTQ Commission Justice Horn wrote in a statement Wednesday morning, “At the time, those in power believed a gay man was the biggest threat to the blood supply. Decades of advocacy and scientific advancements bring us to today’s victory.”

The change now is based on data from the “Assessing Donor Variability and New Concepts in Eligibility” (ADVANCE) study. The CBC said the study sought to determine if different eligibility criteria could be used focusing on each donor’s individual risk behavior rather than their sexual orientation.

“We have heard from members in our community for a long time that they want to donate blood, they want to be able to contribute in this way and now they are able to,” said Smith.

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