“I remember finding out about the ban and being frustrated,” explained Jake Woodward ‘18, Program Director for Carleton’s Red Cross Blood Drive’s Proxy Donation Campaign. Though he felt that the FDA’s ban on blood from gay and bisexual men was unjust, he remembered that in high school “no-one was talking about it.” He didn’t realize that there was anything he could do to start conversations about this policy until his first year at Carleton when he met Russel Peterson ‘15.
Russel helped create Carleton’s Proxy Donation Campaign, a program now run through the CCCE that allows students to sign up to give blood on behalf of people who are excluded by the FDA’s ban on blood donated by men who have had sex with men. The ban originated in 1983, at the height of the AIDS crisis, as a lifetime ban and was amended to a year-long ban late last year. As Jake points out, the policy came about “not so much [because of] the AIDS crisis as the AIDS scare” and fear of gay men.
The current ban still discriminates against many people who don’t pose a risk to the blood supply. Under the new policy, gay men would have to remain completely abstinent for a full year in order to donate, even if they are adhering to safer sex practices. As Jake points out, the ban discriminates against people who are “having the right kind of sex, but with the wrong kind of people.”
“There’s an assumption that the sex lives of queer men are dangerous and automatically put the public at risk,” said Russel. “[The ban] doesn’t recognize that gay and bisexual men are part of the public and care about the blood supply.”
Russel was inspired to take action because he was banned from donating, though he recognized its importance. “I’ve had family members that needed blood transfusions,” Russel explained. “[And] I felt like this policy automatically excluded people within the community [from being part of a life saving activity] without really examining the key issues that were causing people to be infected with HIV.”
Russel wanted to find a way to challenge the FDA’s ban while still encouraging people to participate in blood drives. “I knew that I wanted some type of solution that didn’t ban blood drives, because that doesn’t help anyone.”
In 2013, Russel and others worked with student groups SaGA (Sexuality and Gender Activism) and CORAL (Carleton’s Organization of Radicals, Activist, and Leftists), to find a way to both raise awareness about the ban and encourage potential donors. They developed the idea of creating buttons to signify proxy donation. People who weren’t restricted by the ban could sign up to donate blood on behalf of someone who was banned. The donor would then wear a button signifying that they were a ‘proxy donor,’ prompting conversations around campus while also giving people another reason to donate blood.
When Russel met with the Kelly Scheuerman, Program Director for Civic Engagement Pathways in the CCCE, he found help thinking about the project’s sustainability. “[She] was very excited about making sure this wasn’t just a project that fizzled out after one term,” he explained. With this goal in mind, they worked to make the Proxy Donation campaign a permanent part of the blood drive program run through the CCCE.
“[The program] became institutionalized as part of the CCCE after the first year, which was amazing to me, because I’d been shut out of that process since high school,” said Russel. “[I could now be] part of something that saves lives.”
Jake has taken over the direction of the Proxy Donation Campaign this year. Last term, the program signed up 71 proxy donors and 18 excluded donors. One pint of donated blood has the potential to save three lives. “[So with] one pint each, [the excluded donors] could have saved 54 lives,” explained Jake, highlighting the impact of excluding people from supporting their community through blood donation.
Jake and Russel are both interested in finding ways to expand the conversation. Russel put together a guidebook of information for other schools who hope to build similar programs and presented it at a conference last year.
“Having campaigns like this across the country is affirming that queer men are part of this community,” said Jake. Look for the Proxy Donation Campaigns table at this term’s blood drive on February 9th and 10th from 12:00 – 6:00PM in the Great Hall and sign up to donate blood here.
If you’d like to help organize the Proxy Donation Campaign, email Jake at woodwardj@carleton.edu. If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to email Stacey Johnson ‘15, Educational Associate in the CCCE and former program director for the Red Cross Blood Drive at johnsons@carleton.edu.