Canadian Blood Services apology met with mixed feelings in Windsor, Ont., 2SLGBTQ+ community

Some members of Windsor's 2SLGBTQ+ community say they're glad Canadian Blood Services has apologized to the community for decades of discrimination against gay and bisexual men and some trans people. 

But they say a former policy banning blood donations by men who have sex with men should never have existed in the first place.

Shaun Gereghty said he's angry that for years he faced a lifetime ban on donating blood, despite being in a monogamous marriage, while heterosexuals who engaged in riskier behaviours did not.

"And now I have no desire to, because if it wasn't good enough before, it's not good enough now," he said.

"And I've got perfectly clean O-negative blood."

Gereghty said he believes the apology is sincere, but there is nothing Canadian Blood Services could do to win him back.

The agency issued the apology in Ottawa on Friday, less than two years after abandoning the last vestiges of its discriminatory policy.

Canada introduced a lifetime blood donation ban for men who have sex with men in 1992. 

In 2013, Canadian Blood Services began allowing donations from men who said they had abstained from sex with other men for five years. It reduced the deferral period to one year In 2016 and to three months in 2019.

The agency insisted that the policies were essential to protect the safety of the blood supply.

Behaviour-based screening introduced in 2022

But in 2022, it adopted a new behaviour-based screening-policy that disqualifies would-be donors based on their exposure to risky behaviours rather than on the genders of their sexual partners. 

"It's nice that they apologize,  said Wendi Nicholson, the president of Windsor Essex Pride Fest. 

"But honestly, there shouldn't have been a ban ... to [have] apologized for,"

One member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community who volunteered for Canadian Blood Services said she's grateful for the apology but she understands the position of people like Gereghty.

"I hope that people will get to a point where they're able to say 'OK,' you know? Because the need is great," said Hedy Halpern. 

But she added, "Some wounds are deep, and some people will never get over it. And I respect that."

Halpern, a retired nurse, began donating blood in 1971, inspired by her father, and recently made her 202nd donation.

She volunteered in the 1970s with the Canadian Red Cross and helped recruit blood donors for Canadian Blood Services prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2SLGBTQ+ community wants meaningful engagement

In the 1990s, she and other women served as "blood sisters" for gay men, donating blood on behalf of men who could not.

Halpern is among several members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community who told CBC they'd like to see Canadian Blood Services follow up its apology with action aimed at repairing its relationship with the community. 

"I wouldn't mind seeing ads that show, perhaps gay men, coming in and saying … something like, 'I'm here to donate, and I'm grateful that Canadian Blood Services have changed their attitude,'" she said.

Prominent gay rights lawyer Douglas Elliott, who completed his first year of law school in Windsor and who went on to represent the Canadian AIDS Society at the Krever Inquiry into Canada's tainted blood scandal, asked if the agency would be present at community events or if it would engage with the community.

"I'm glad that they've apologized," he said.

"Now let's put some action behind it…. Otherwise, it's just one more public relations gesture."

Gereghty said Canadian Blood Services needs to reach out to the communities it turned away and not simply spend money to try and build relationships.

"They should be there at Pride events," he said.

"They should be helping out the queer communities and any other communities that they may have hurt."