LGBTQ+ Indians demand end to ‘discriminatory’ blood donation ban
When his mother fell ill, Karan, a 25-year-old gay man from New Delhi, hurried to donate blood. But as he filled out the mandatory form for donors, he realised he would be turned away because of his sexuality and made a snap decision.
Karan, the only member of his family with the same blood group as his mother, decided to lie about being gay, potentially risking prosecution. “I was … scared of being caught (but) at that time, the only thing that mattered to me was my mother,” said Karan, whose full name is not being published to protect his identity. “It was only later that I realised it was so dehumanising, harmful to my dignity and a breach of my privacy as a queer person in this country,” Karan told Openly.
India’s current laws prohibit trans people, gay and bisexual men, and female sex workers from donating blood, despite acute shortages in the world’s most populous country and a global shift away from bans on blood donation by LGBTQIA+ people.
The rules, which date back to the start of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, exclude members of those groups on the grounds that they are at high risk for the virus – even though all donated blood is screened for HIV.
