On the 12th of February, 2020, a blood drive took place at McGill. This was organized by Héma-Québec, a non-profit that supplies blood, among other biological substances, to Quebec hospitals. Blood collection agencies in Canada have been known to misgender trans individuals, and Héma-Québec actively refuses blood donations from men who have had sex with men anytime in a period of three months preceeding the date of blood collection. The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS), Queer McGill (QM), and the Union for Gender Empowerment (UGE) condemn these blantantly transphobic and homophobic practices and encourage McGill to rethink their partnerships with a focus on the students their actions and inactions affect.
Restrictions on blood donations were first enacted at the opening of the HIV epidemic before the advent of reliable screening methods, in response to the Krever Inquiry, otherwise known as the Canadian Tainted Blood Scandal, where as many as 2000 Canadians contracted HIV after receiving transfusions of unknowingly infected blood. These restricted donations by men who have sex with men (MSM) and were later clarified to restrict donations by transgender women and gender non-conforming individuals who were assigned male at birth.
Despite the development of fast and effective screening methods, with up to 100% sensitivity, these groups are still currently barred from donating blood or blood-related products within 3 months of sexual activity with other MSM, transgender women and/or gender non-conforming individuals assigned male at birth. Furthermore, a 2013 Vox Sanguinis study found the risk of HIV transmission to be only 0.5% greater when donations were deferred as compared to a lifetime ban, comparable to one infectious donation every 455 years. Moreover, the Krever Inquiry concluded that government dysfunction and the lack of a clear policy on blood donation, as opposed to donations made by LGBTQ+ individuals, was to blame for the Tainted Blood Scandal.
As of 2020, organizations such as Héma-Québec, Canadian Blood Services, and Health Canada have been involved in some efforts to lower the threshold for blood donation requirements for men who have had sex with other men, including a reduction to the deferral period from one year in 2016 to three months by 2019. However, the organizations continue to defend and enforce the ban at the three month threshold, and in 2019 Canadian Blood Services actively contested human rights complaints filed to the Canadian Human Rights Commission alleging that any form of the deferral policy constituted homophobic discrimination. The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity (CCGSD) notes that the original implementation of the MSM blood ban in the late 1980s was not grounded in scientific research efforts, and actively recommends for eligible donors and others to express their dissatisfaction with the blood ban to Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec. Resultantly, gay and queer men are regularly routinely subjected to experiences of alienation and discrimination based on policies rooted in pseudoscience and stigma.
Furthermore, organizations such as MoveUP Canada have petitioned for an end to the official policy of agencies like Canadian Blood Services to actively misgender trans women as men if they have not had lower gender affirmation surgery. Unlike Canadian Blood Services, which in this regard states clearly that their policy includes misgendering trans people, Héma-Québec has failed to provide a clear and publicly available guideline for trans blood donation, which has created situations wherein numerous trans men, trans women, and other gender non-conforming people have experienced discrimination and unnecessary barriers when trying to donate blood.
The SSMU, in recognition of the active harm caused by these practices, is committed to aiding services on campus such as Queer McGill and the Union for Gender Empowerment in order to facilitate adequate support for students affected by discriminatory blood donation practices. Services such as QM and the UGE exist as dedicated resources for LGBTQ+ students affected by marginalization and are committed to creating empowering and uplifting spaces.
The roles of the VP Finance and the VP Student Life are essential to supporting these services in their capacity-building efforts. Should these services have additional needs in order to support students harmed by discriminatory blood donation practices, the VP Finance and VP Student Life will be committed to serving them. As these services operate independently, the role of the VP Finance and VP Student Life will be to facilitate their capacities, not to guide services, but to respond to them. As such, in any advocacy undertaken regarding this issue, the SSMU will consult services such as QM and the UGE in order to ensure that the best course of action is being taken.
In addition, we hereby demand that the McGill administration actively seek the approval of students and student groups including QM, the UGE, SSMU, and other societies such as the AUS before allowing organizations such as Héma-Québec, Canadian Blood Services, and Health Canada to carry out their operations on McGill campus. The Vice-President (University Affairs) shall immediately begin advocacy efforts at the McGill level to this effect. In allowing these organizations to maintain an unchecked presence on campus, McGill University remains complicit in the propagation of blatantly transphobic and homophobic practices and sentiments within the McGill community.
Finally, we commit to upholding the values we reiterate here in our own practices. As long as Hema-Quebec, Blood Services Canada, and Health Canada engage in harmful, unnecessary practices that discriminate against at-risk communities, we cannot enable their work. While we of course encourage students to give blood whenever they can, we understand that our communication networks ought to support content that does not cause outright distress to members of our student body. Hema-Quebec, in their blood drive initiatives, will not be able to rely on the SSMU to disseminate information across our media platforms. Moreover, in our community and government work, we will support various campaigns aiming to raise awareness about this issue, such as the Canadian Federation of Students’s End the Ban, and will use our own position as the official representative of McGill students to remind provincial and federal organisations that students do not support the homophobic and transphobic practices of Hema-Quebec, Blood Services Canada, and Health Canada.
Signed,
SSMU 2019-2020 Executive Team
The Union for Gender Empowerment
Queer McGill
The Arts Undergraduate Society of McGill University
