JEFFREY SAUGER / MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Kathy Gerus-Darbison has had HIV since 1985 and AIDS since 1993. HIV-tainted blood products infected and killed her first husband, a hemophiliac, who unknowingly also infected her. She's holding a portrait of herself from 1992 at her home in Macomb, Mich.
With the public focused on the calamity of the Gulf oil spill, another disaster that could affect millions of lives is in the making. The federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability is holding meetings on June 10 and June 11 to consider lifting the ban on gay blood. Cliff Kincaid, president of the public policy group, America's Survival, Inc. (ASI), is scheduled to testify in favor of the ban.
If the ban is lifted, Kincaid argues, the five million Americans a year who receive blood transfusions could be exposed to the AIDS virus or other infections in the diseased blood of sexually active homosexuals. Kincaid's testimony, available at www.usasurvival.org, consists of the expert views of Dale O'Leary, a writer who has followed the AIDS epidemic since the beginning and written extensively on the subject of sexually transmitted diseases.
Gay activists, who are expected to dominate the proceedings and intimidate federal policy makers, insist that the ban is discriminatory and homophobic and are demanding the "right" to donate blood.
Kincaid asks, "Do you or your loved ones want to die in order to advance the gay rights agenda?"
In advance of the Thursday and Friday meetings on blood safety, a federal notice has reiterated that male homosexuals "have an increased incidence and prevalence of several currently recognized transfusion-transmitted diseases" -- Hepatitis B virus, HIV, syphilis, and cytomegalovirus.
It also says, "There is a theoretical concern that MSM [men who have sex with men] populations may also be at increased risk for other unrecognized transfusion-transmitted agents." That means another infectious agent could be lurking in the blood that the homosexuals want to have the "right" to donate to the nation's blood supply.
The move to lift the ban is being spearheaded by the militant homosexual "rights" organizations and gay lobbies which contribute to the campaigns of liberal Congressional candidates. These organizations, working with liberal members of Congress, have pressured the federal government to hold the June 10 and 11 meetings to consider lifting the ban on gay blood.
Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with jurisdiction over the blood supply, is a political appointee of the Obama Administration.
The pressure campaign has already forced the American Red Cross and two other blood groups to previously argue for lifting the ban. But the FDA, after reviewing the policy in 2006, reiterated the prohibition, which has been in effect since 1983 and applies to MSM since 1977, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.
Kincaid commented, "Once again, as we have seen in the gays in the military debate, the gays are constantly screaming about their rights, oblivious to the point of madness about the rights of others. In this case, it's our right to be free of infected blood when our loved ones get a blood transfusion. But unless the public quickly offers its comments and raises an outcry with the federal authorities coming under the influence and intimidation of the gay rights lobby, the 'right' to donate blood could soon be extended to a politically-connected special interest group that has a demonstrated propensity to acquire life-threatening and deadly diseases."
If the ban is lifted, Kincaid argues, the five million Americans a year who receive blood transfusions could be exposed to the AIDS virus or other infections in the diseased blood of sexually active homosexuals. Kincaid's testimony, available at www.usasurvival.org, consists of the expert views of Dale O'Leary, a writer who has followed the AIDS epidemic since the beginning and written extensively on the subject of sexually transmitted diseases.
Gay activists, who are expected to dominate the proceedings and intimidate federal policy makers, insist that the ban is discriminatory and homophobic and are demanding the "right" to donate blood.
Kincaid asks, "Do you or your loved ones want to die in order to advance the gay rights agenda?"
In advance of the Thursday and Friday meetings on blood safety, a federal notice has reiterated that male homosexuals "have an increased incidence and prevalence of several currently recognized transfusion-transmitted diseases" -- Hepatitis B virus, HIV, syphilis, and cytomegalovirus.
It also says, "There is a theoretical concern that MSM [men who have sex with men] populations may also be at increased risk for other unrecognized transfusion-transmitted agents." That means another infectious agent could be lurking in the blood that the homosexuals want to have the "right" to donate to the nation's blood supply.
The move to lift the ban is being spearheaded by the militant homosexual "rights" organizations and gay lobbies which contribute to the campaigns of liberal Congressional candidates. These organizations, working with liberal members of Congress, have pressured the federal government to hold the June 10 and 11 meetings to consider lifting the ban on gay blood.
Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with jurisdiction over the blood supply, is a political appointee of the Obama Administration.
The pressure campaign has already forced the American Red Cross and two other blood groups to previously argue for lifting the ban. But the FDA, after reviewing the policy in 2006, reiterated the prohibition, which has been in effect since 1983 and applies to MSM since 1977, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.
Kincaid commented, "Once again, as we have seen in the gays in the military debate, the gays are constantly screaming about their rights, oblivious to the point of madness about the rights of others. In this case, it's our right to be free of infected blood when our loved ones get a blood transfusion. But unless the public quickly offers its comments and raises an outcry with the federal authorities coming under the influence and intimidation of the gay rights lobby, the 'right' to donate blood could soon be extended to a politically-connected special interest group that has a demonstrated propensity to acquire life-threatening and deadly diseases."
