Jaboukie Young-White interviews Dr. Jack Turban about FDA's unscientific and discriminatory gay blood ban
Turban: “Being gay or bisexual isn't a real risk factor for HIV”
Published
Citation From the May 4, 2020, edition of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
JABOUKIE YOUNG-WHITE (CORRESPONDENT): Back in 1983, the FDA banned gay men from donating blood. This was during the AIDS crisis, which was another disease that the government didn't do shit about until it was far too late. In 2015, that ban was lifted, but if a gay man wanted to donate blood, he just couldn't have sex for 12 months. That's some straight-up Mike Pence shit right there. But now in the middle of this pandemic, the FDA relaxed their bullshit policy to three months of abstinence.
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JACK TURBAN (RESIDENT PHYSICIAN IN PSYCHIATRY): So being gay or bisexual isn't a real risk factor for HIV. Say you have a straight man who's had sex with a hundred women in the past month and never used a condom, that person can still donate blood. But if there is a gay man who's been having sex with his husband and wearing condoms consistently, that person can't.
LUKUS ESTOK (GAY COVID-19 SURVIVOR): Yeah, I think at the end of the day we need science and not stigma to make decisions about donor eligibility.
TURBAN: The FDA is sending this message again that if you're gay, the only way that you can be a good, clean, charitable person -- the kind of person who donates blood -- is if you don't have sex.