Blood Drive Movement

By Tyisha Drakeford

Lehman College’s Rainbow Alliance Club is pushing for blood drives to be moved off campus. This club is among the many Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual friendly clubs at CUNY schools that have begun to petition this cause. Having the blood drive on campus violates schools non-discrimination policy. Gay and bisexual men are unable to give blood and this has LGBT clubs furious that the schools hold drives on campus. They fully support the cause to give blood. Their only wish is to make it equal.

“It’s unfair because how is it that a person who has had unprotected sex with someone who has HIV is only banned for a year, but a gay or bisexual man who has had sex with a HIV-negative male is banned for life,” said Bronx student Stephanie Zapata, who is president of Lehman’s Rainbow Alliance.

Cindy Kreisberg, Lehman College’s health director, states that it’s very expensive to test the blood. It’s expensive to hire the people who draw the blood and bring it to the hospital after it has been tested. She thinks that if the law is lifted and there is a higher chance for the blood to be infected, then many units will need to be replaced and that is extra money that the city currently doesn’t have. Lehman’s senior administrators feel that moving any blood drive off a campus will discourage the maximum number of people who will come to the campus.

“The blood drive policies are not CUNY’s policies,” said José Magdaleno, Senior Vice President of Student Affairs at Lehman College. “CUNY plays a unique role in the collection of blood and having it on campus gives more accessibility to Lehman students.”

Magdaleno says that there is a compelling social interest in donating blood and Lehman administrators don’t want to move it off campus so it that it would be an extra bus trip for donors to take.

The Federal Drug Administration policy seems to be under some heat, according to people in the health profession. Blood banks are pushing for a change, along with the students. The Red Cross feels the current lifetime deferral for men who have sex with men is no longer medically and scientifically relevant. As a matter of fact, when last put to a vote, the FDA advisory committee was split down the middle on the policy. Students feel that the blood drive on campus will emotionally harm gay and bisexual male students.

“This policy makes it look like these students have tainted blood because of their orientation,” said one Bronx gay male student who asked that he not be identified.  “Gay men are denied the ability to give life by donating blood.”

One Bronx nurse, Kimone Walters, agreed that there are benefits to having the blood donations on campus: “Even though I don’t go to a particular college, I feel its easy access. Especially at Lehman because the café is right downstairs.”

CUNY’s GLBT friendly clubs have had many protests at CUNY campuses and on a nationwide level. On the nationwide level, students wish to remove the law all together. They show signs that they will continue to protest until they see a change or it goes on long enough to get noticed. At the CUNY level, students wish to move the blood drive close to, but off, school property.

“Its not like I don’t support the drive, I’d give blood myself,” Zapata said.  I just want it so that it’s equal.”