Last year I donated blood for the first an only time. I stopped not for lack of altruistic spirit but because I found something within the procedure that offended me completely. For those who have never donated blood let me break it up a little bit, you basically go to a station at your school or a mall when the Canada Blood Services are up taking donations. They ask you if you ate today, and if you haven’t, they send you to eat something so you do not pass out. You also have to be a minimum of 110 pounds, again so you do not faint. They also ask you if you have given birth within the last six months or if you are breast feeding. This is all to keep you safe from becoming too weak when the blood is taken out from you. All this is perfectly fine…
After you are told to sit down and fill a questionnaire, the questions you are asked to answer alone also seem very much standard, such as; “Are you feeling well today?”. When you are through with that questionnaire you are called to speak with a nurse to fill out another questionnaire. This is where the problems start.
This part of the questionnaire is racist, homophobic and discriminatory on so many levels. You are asked if either you or your mother or grandmother were born in Mexico or Latin America. It asks if you have visited these countries for a significant amount of time. Yes, I was and so was everyone is my family, so? If they tell me we have some blood problems, then ok go ahead and believe that lie, but they are going to test everyone’s blood before putting it in a patient right? So what is the problem? Why do you have to make people feel like they are somehow inferior if all they are doing is trying to help?
The questionnaire asks if you have ever been a prostitute. It asks men if they have ever, even once had sex with another man. Excuse me how is this their business? How is this relevant? If they think homosexual men have aids and other diseases, good for them, they are going to test the blood first anyways. There is absolutely no need to be homophobic and ask these private questions to anyone.
Then the women are asked if they have had sex with a man who has ever had sex with another man. Huh? Who cares! You are going to test the blood! And honestly if you have you probably do not know anyways… They are also asked if they have been sexually active with anyone born in Africa. Wow… I feel like I being redundant here but they are going to test the blood! What is the need for this?
So not only are you giving your time to donate blood, being poked with a needle for around 30 minutes, but before all this fun begins your privacy is violated and you are expected to answer homophobic, racist and overall discriminatory questions.
That was the only day I donated blood and I refuse to do it again until these outdated methods are changed. I do not feel comfortable participating in something that is so discriminatory without the need to be. The blood is going to get tested before it is given to anyone; all of these questions are simply unacceptable. While I was being asked I felt like saying “Yes, I am a Mexican bisexual with a bisexual African boyfriend, oh and I have multiple tattoos and piercings”, just to see what they would say.
I want this to be changed because I definitely believe donating blood is something positive, and I like to help. We never know who needs the blood and what life we could be saving by donating. However, not in this manner, I do not want to be part of it. I also ask myself why is it that the first part of the questionnaire we answer by ourselves and then the racist part we do it with a nurse? Are they aware that people are more likely to walk out if they are seeing that? What do you guys think?
I leave you with the link so you can see the questionnaire for yourselves. Read it all over, the invasive questions are the ones shaded in grey at the last section.
-Belisa
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