FDA inches toward easing gay blood donation ban

by Bob Roehr

The lifetime ban on gay men donating blood may be eased to a 12-month deferral if scientific evidence presented at a March 8 workshop in Bethesda, Maryland is turned into policy guidance by the Food and Drug Administration. All of the major players in the blood products industry now support that position.

The FDA policy adopted in 1985 recommended deferral of blood donations by populations based upon their risk behaviors for the transmission of HIV. Little was known about HIV at the time and the test to screen blood for the presence of HIV was new and of questionable accuracy. Excluding the highest risk individuals, then gay men, made sense.

Blood screening tests have been improved over the years so that they detect the actual virus itself, not just the antibody to it, which takes longer to develop. There is only a very brief period of 10-21 days after initial infection when the virus might not be detected.

Men who have sex with men currently are banned for life from donating blood, even if they are in a monogamous relationship. Injection drug users and commercial sex workers can donate blood once they had abstained from those activities for at least a year.

The FDA revisited the policy in September 2000, suggesting that increased knowledge of HIV and improved technologies for screening blood for the virus had made it possible to modify the gay exclusion from a lifetime ban to a 12-month exclusion, in line with other high risk groups.

The American Association of Blood Banks, the association of transfusion medicine professionals, and America's Blood Centers, representing local organizations that collect nearly half of all blood in the U.S., both supported the modification. Only the American Red Cross testified against the change, and that was sufficient for the advisory committee to vote 7-6 not to support changing the guidelines in 2000.

This time around the Red Cross fell into line and in a joint statement presented by AABB senior medical adviser Steven Kleinman, the three organizations called the lifetime ban for gay men "medically and scientifically unwarranted." It recommended making the deferral criteria the same for all high-risk groups.

They also warned the FDA, "The continued requirement for a deferral standard seen as scientifically marginal and unfair or discriminatory by individuals with identified characteristics may motivate them to actively ignore the prohibition and provide blood collection facilities with less accurate information."

An additional concern is that grassroots opposition to the ban has arisen in high schools and on college campuses across the country over what many see as a discriminatory policy. That has made it more difficult to conduct blood drives among younger volunteers and establish patterns of regular donations that can last a lifetime.

To help ease any remaining qualms about changing the policy, the groups offered to assist in gathering data on its impact, should it become advisable to revisit the proposed change.

The FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee was briefed on the workshop when it met the following day, but it was not asked to comment. The FDA may propose revising its donation guidelines later in the year.

The advisory committee also discussed the FDA's proposed procedures to review and approve over the counter sales of tests for HIV. The company that makes the OraQuick saliva test to detect antibodies to HIV has said that it will seek such approval, and after the meeting said it would move forward with the types of trials outlined by the FDA.

The OraQuick test is widely used by public health agencies to screen for the virus both within clinics and at mobile sites. Some HIV agencies say that making the test more easily available runs the risk of inadequate counseling to what the test means and linking those who test positive to services, while others support wider access under appropriate safeguards.

03/16/2006

BBC News: Singapore censor passes Brokeback

Brokeback Mountain has been passed in its entirety by the film censors in Singapore, in spite of the country's stringent laws against homosexuality.

The Oscar-nominated film will be restricted to cinema-goers over the age of 21 and will carry a "mature theme, sexual scenes" warning.

Singapore's media content director said Ang Lee's film was passed as it did not "promote or glamorise the lifestyle".

Gay sex is punishable by a maximum of two years imprisonment in the country.

"As the entire film focuses on and revolves round the issue of homosexuality, the Board of Film Censors decided to rate it R21," said Amy Hua from the Media Development Authority.

Singaporean film critic Wong Lung Hsiang said that Brokeback Mountain is "not very controversial".

Banned

"The two characters suffer a lot, the film is very tragic, it wins sympathy from the audience," he said.

Singaporean gay rights activists are hailing the decision as a sign that censorship is being relaxed.

"This shows they are willing to give more scope for homosexuality to be examined as an issue in popular culture," said Russell Heng, founder of gay support group People Like Us.

Singapore has attempted to relax controls in an effort to market itself as an arts and media centre.

But in 2004, Taiwanese film Formula 17, which was about two teenage boys falling in love, was banned because it portrayed homosexuality as "normal, and a natural progression of society".

In 2002, a scene in The Hours, which depicted two women kissing, was cut.

New cinema ratings were introduced in 2004 in a bid to relax film censorship in Singapore and give adults greater choice over what they were able to watch.

AP: Transsexual drug dealer spared the cane (Jan 22)

Transsexual drug dealer spared the cane
Associated Press
published Sunday, January 22, 2006

SINGAPORE -- A court has spared a Thai transsexual drug dealer from caning because Singaporean law does not allow women to be sentenced to that punishment, a newspaper reported Friday.

Thai prostitute Mongkon Pusuwan, who underwent a sex change from male to female a decade ago, was instead sentenced on Wednesday to six years in jail after a medical report concluded that she was a woman, The Straits Times reported.

District Judge Bala Reddy handed down the sentence after the long-haired Mongkon, 37, pleaded guilty to charges including trafficking in cocaine and tablets containing ketamine, the report said.

The amount of drugs in her possession was too small for her to qualify for Singapore's mandatory death penalty for some drug cases.

Mongkon, whose passport identified her as a male, was arrested in December.

Men who commit similar crimes can be sentenced to caning. Offenders are strapped to a wooden frame and lashed across the bare buttocks with a rattan rod.

The punishment drew international attention in 1994 when American teenager Michael Fay was caned for spray-painting cars, despite objections from then-U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Fridae.com: Singapore government awards S$100,000 grant to group with ex-gay affiliation

Singapore government awards S$100,000 grant to group with ex-gay affiliation

by Sylvia Tan
A group which plans to help gays and lesbians "understand" their sexual identity has received a S$100,000 (US$61,500) grant from the Singapore government. Fridae has however uncovered that the group is an advocate of reparative therapy and is linked to an international Christian group which dedicates itself to "correcting" homosexuality.


Twenty-five-year-old John Yeo was happy and felt a sense of comfort when he heard on the news that the government is funding a non-profit group to “help gays and lesbians understand their sexual identity.”

Leslie Lung, the founder and executive director of the group, has been featured several times in various newspapers as an ex-transsexual who changed his mind three days before his sex-change operation in 1984 after having a spiritual encounter. He is also the author of Freedom of Choice, a collection of 20 essays about how people ''overcame'' their struggles including homosexuality.

According to a Channel News Asia (CNA) report last Friday, Liberty League (LL), has received a S$100,000 (US$61,500) grant from the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre which is funded by the Ministry of Community Development Youth and Sports. The group which aims to “promote gender and sexual health for the individual, family and society” as stated on its web site, hopes to conduct sexuality talks in schools, organise support groups for parents of homosexuals and to work with organisations such as the Girls' Brigade to educate teenagers on sexuality and biology.

It also reported that 70 per cent of LL's “clients” are gays, lesbians and transsexuals who are “grappling with their gender identities.”
It is the first time a grant and public “recognition” has been given to a non-profit group for its work in this area.

Yeo’s initial thoughts that gays and lesbians might have finally been accepted came to an end after he learnt from an Internet discussion group that the founder and executive director of the group, Leslie Lung, is an advocate of reparative therapy.

Observers were quick to point out that Lung, 41, has been featured several times in various newspapers as an ex-transsexual who changed his mind three days before his sex-change operation in 1984. He claimed that he had a spiritual encounter despite being professionally diagnosed as being a transsexual and having lived as a woman for four years prior to his scheduled surgery. He said in a 2003 interview in the Straits Times about the turning point: “One of the key thoughts of the Bible is that a man shouldn't put on woman's clothes. I've always thought that ridiculous but suddenly I saw the principle behind the commandment. God is telling us not to do the opposite. Suddenly I knew that the operation would not be right.”

He also cited attending a self-help group after meeting Sinclair Rogers, a Singapore-based American pastor who himself “came out of transsexualism” and later founded Choices, an ex-gay ministry directly affiliated to Exodus International, the largest ex-gay organisation in the world.

Lung is also the author of Freedom of Choice, a collection of 20 essays about how people “overcame” their struggles including homosexuality, transsexuality and masturbation. When asked if the group “champions gay and lesbian rights,” Lung told CNA that they “champion human rights really.”

“It's about people being able to say, I'm human and sexual orientation is so wide. Being gay and lesbian is part of it; coming out of it is part of it as well."

Some in the gay community have however highlighted that being a former transsexual does not qualify one to counsel others about their homosexuality. He is a “former transgender person, who now claims to be ex-gay… transgender doesn't equal homosexual. I can buy that he used to live as a woman, and now lives as an effeminate man, gender can be fluid like that, but that has nothing to do with homosexuality.” One wrote in an Internet discussion group.

Lung said in the interview, "This is very much based on the Alcoholic Anonymous self-help principles. So people come; it's an environment that is friendly, warm, based on friendship, encouraging people to take small steps to talk about the issues, recognise why they are doing certain things, find resolutions."

Fridae.com: Perspectival shift: How can gays and lesbians be accepted as "regular" people and not as subversives?

Perspectival shift: How can gays and lesbians be accepted as "regular" people and not as subversives?

by Alex Au
How can gays and lesbians be accepted as "regular" people and not as subversives?

Alex Au delves into how a perspectival shift can help even as we hope for Asian societies to "get used to" gay people without having to be too confrontational.

In an extraordinarily erudite article in the New York Times, January 1, 2006, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosopher teaching at Princeton University, said the sea change in the way Western societies have come to regard homosexual persons is not a "story about reasons." It is a "perspectival shift."

If there is truth to the belief that many Asian cultures place a high value on discretion and privacy, are gay men and lesbians in this region more likely to remain in the closet and avoid the topic of sexuality in any conversation? If so, do the public in these countries get less opportunity to ''get used to'' gay people?

" Over the last 30 years or so, instead of thinking about the private activity of gay sex, many Americans and Europeans started thinking about the public category of gay people."

In effect, telling people why they should accept gay people in their midst had less to do with the outcome than just having gay people in their midst. "I don't deny," he wrote, "that all the time, at every stage, people were talking, giving one another reasons to do things: accept their children, stop treating homosexuality as a medical disorder, disagree with their churches, come out. "Still, the short version of the story is basically this: People got used to lesbians and gay men."

One can quibble with some of the finer points he made, but he is essentially right. However, let's get the quibbling out of the way first. It's true that almost all homophobia against gay males, on closer inspection, is an outgrowth of heterosexual distaste for the very thought of homosexual intercourse, but it also arguable that homophobia against lesbians sprout from different roots. One seldom sees the same, visceral distaste for lesbian sex as for gay male sex. Instead, I would suggest that lesbians are subconsciously seen as disobedient to male superiority and the submission that is expected.

The other tiny thing some readers may have noticed is that talking about coming out was included among the less important reasons for the attitudinal change. This may strike some people as odd, for if gays and lesbians had not come out, how could the getting used to them have taken place?

Yet, he's also right. Very few gays and lesbians came out because they weighed the reasons for and against and then decided to do so. They came out when they themselves became used to being gay and lesbian, when they themselves got used to seeing other, happily out, gay people.

The foregoing aside, there are two questions that spring to mind from Professor Appiah's comments.

Avoiding Confrontation
If there is truth to the belief that many Asian cultures place a high value on discretion and privacy, are gay men and lesbians in this region more likely to remain in the closet and avoid the topic of sexuality in any conversation? If so, do the public in these countries get less opportunity to "get used to" gay people?

Indeed, many have remarked that Asian cultures put a premium on avoiding confrontation and this induces a certain degree of self-censorship. Western societies, particularly American, are less tortured about being frank and on occasion, "in your face."

Reuters: Singapore tells spouses of patient's HIV status (Dec 6)

Singapore tells spouses of patients' HIV status

Posted Tue Dec 6, 2005 8:22pm AEDT

Singapore's Health Ministry has started informing spouses of HIV-positive patients directly about their partners' disease in order to curb the spread of AIDS.

Senior Minister of State for Health Balaji Sadasivan says letters have been hand-delivered to 41 women since July informing them that their husbands are HIV-positive.

"Previously, some wives were not aware of their spouse's HIV status and so they were at risk of the HIV infection," said text of the speech posted on the website.

"Since July this year, we have informed the wife when the infected husband had not informed her of his positive HIV status.

"Marriage and the women's own fidelity are not enough to protect them against HIV infection. Most have been infected despite staying faithful to their partners."

The letters advise spouses to get screened for HIV and give them information about counselling services available at the Communicable Disease Centre.

The ministry says two of the women who received the notifications have since tested positive for the virus.

In July the Singapore Government scrapped a law that required the patient's consent to inform their spouse.

The move to sanction breaching patient confidentiality is part of a raft of measures introduced to fight the spread of AIDS.

Although the wealthy South-East Asian city-state has one of Asia's lowest levels of HIV infection, it has said it is tightening defences due to an increase in cases.

Singapore has recorded a total of 2,584 HIV infections to date, of whom 954 have died, 631 have full-blown AIDS and 999 show no symptoms.

From January to October this year, 198 people were diagnosed with HIV, less than 10 per cent of them women.

In July, the ministry introduced HIV testing as part of the antenatal screening routine for pregnant women.

A pilot project to distribute HIV self-test kits at locations where homosexuals socialise will be soon be launched.

Controversial legislative measures, such as compulsory HIV testing for couples about to marry and criminalising the act of spreading the HIV virus with or without intent, have also been considered but have not been implemented.

- Reuters