Croatian Homosexuals Not Acceptable as Blood-Donors
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The Legal team of Iskorak and Kontra associations demanded from Nenad Ljubicic, Minister of Health, to remove the provision in the Rulebook on Blood and Blood Serum that permanently eliminates homosexual persons from the possibility to donate blood and to replace the term homosexuals with the phrase “people with risky sexual behaviour”.
The Rulebook has entered into force in 1999, in spite of the fact that it collides with both Croatian and European anti-discrimination laws. The Legal Team does agree that the most important issue here is protection of recipients of donated blood from possible infections and diseases. Therefore, the emphasis should be on risky sexual behaviour, not on sexual orientation of the donors. The existing phrasing implies homosexuality as sole means of transfer of disease, while 26 percent of HIV infected persons in Croatia are heterosexual. Also, the Team objects to the questionnaire that potential male blood donors are asked to complete prior to making a donation, which asks them if they ever had homosexual relations. |
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