Parliamentary Group

DRAFT RESOLUTION NO. 13 /XI

It recommends the Government to adopt measures aimed at countering the current

discrimination of homosexuals and bisexuals in the collection services of

blood

In our country, male homosexuals are the target of discrimination

unjustified in the gift of blood. This discrimination was largely contested

by the homosexual population and by the associations representing it, as well as by

various associations of health professionals and the fight against HIV/AIDS.

In fact, the Decree-Law No. 267/2007 of July 24, Part B, concerning the

information that must be provided by donors to the blood services,

stipulates, in line with the Commission's Directive 2004 /33/CE, of 22 of

March 2004, which should be provided to " clinical and medical history, through a

questionnaire and a personal interview with a health professional

qualified, which includes relevant factors likely to contribute to the

identification and exclusion of persons whose donations may constitute a risk to

the health of third parties, such as the possibility of transmission of diseases, or a

risk for your own health ". In turn, the same decree sets out, in the Annex

VII, among the definitive suspension criteria of donors of homologous donations, the

sexual behavior that puts individuals at " great risk of contracting

serious infectious diseases likely to be transmitted by blood ".

That orientation focuses, so, on risky behaviors, and not on the

outdated and prejudiced concept of "groups of risk". However, they continue to

there are diverse public blood collection services that include in their

questionnaires explicitly homophobic questions, being one of the examples the

Hospital of Santo António in Porto, which includes in its 12ª question the following

formulation: "If it is male: has it ever had sexual relations with another man?".

In response to the question of Rep. João Semedo, of the Left Bloc, on this

situation, was issued a trade from the Cabinet of the Minister of Health, July 2009,

which confirms the exclusion of potential male blood donors who

declares to have sexual relations with other men, arguing to treat themselves

" solely of a control over the risk behaviors of donors, what

be compelled by the circumstance of female homosexuals to be able to be

accepted as such ". This statement shields this position with the need for

comply with European directives that point towards the exclusion of potentials

male homosexual donors.

In practice, this communique trespasses, however, that homosexuals

masculine are pure and simply forbidden to give blood, whether they have, or

no, risky sexual behaviours, which is exactly what has been happening

in health establishments such as St. John's Hospital and Hospital de Santo

António, both in Porto, at the Portuguese Institute of Blood of Lisbon and at the Institute

Portuguese of Oncology, as reported in the Public Journal. On the other hand, they have

been disclosed cases of discrimination of female homosexuals,

notably from the potential donor who has performed at the Hospital de Santo

António, in Porto, to whom the practice of blood donation has been denied.

Known is also the position of the responsible of the Portuguese Blood Institute of the Blood

(IPS), Gabriel Olim, who considers that accepting blood from a homosexual is

introduce "contaminated blood" into the system, affirmation that put the President

from IPS to the lower level of ignorance and prejudice. Still in 2007, Gabriel

Olim justified the discrimination to which they are subjected to potential donors

homosexuals upon pretenses "statistical criteria" and stated that " what

interests is the tranquility and the safety of who will receive the blood "and that" the

Portuguese are prejudiced ". Already on July 30, 2009, the responsible of the IPS

affirmed, to the IOnline Journal, that " when a person presents himself on an assumed charge

as a homosexual and want to give blood, I interpret it as a provocation. Who

want to come give blood doesn't come with this attitude ".

They have been various voices of disagreement with regard to the criteria adopted

by the IPS.

The National Coordinator for the VIH/Sida Infection, Henrique Barros, defended, in

press conference of June 14, 2007, that " the trace models

selective, by steps, based on characteristics of individuals connected to their

personal choices or lifestyles, without reference to biological markers, are

scientifically invalid, promote waste and lead inevitably to the

discrimination and stigma. So there is no point in eliminating donors

on the basis of their sexual orientation. "

Also the Bastonary of the Order of the Doctors, Pedro Nunes, faces the exclusion of

potential male blood donors who declare homosexual relations

as a "discrimination" that "makes no sense".

On the other hand, the invocation that was made about an alleged uniformity

international of this guidance and this discriminatory question also no

corresponds to reality. Second statements by the European Health Commissioner,

Androulla Vassiliou, " there is no special rule that covers

homosexual. That's a myth. The concern is always with the security and the

quality of blood ".

Effectively, the most recent European Directives do not advise that

discrimination. Countries such as Spain and Italy for some time now have pulled out

homosexuality from the list of exclusion factors, without ever having registered

any increase in the incidence of infections in the harvested blood.

The decision, on the part of health technicians, to exclude donors from blood

homosexuals is explicitly abusive and discriminatory in the face of legislation

applicable. The assumed charge of homosexuality as sexual behavior

deviant, which puts individuals " great risk of contracting infectious diseases

serious likely to be transmitted by blood ", does not have any

scientific foundation.

This kind of ignorance and disknowledge have been on the basis of identification

of VIH/Sida as a disease of homosexuals, stereotype that, today, in the face of

alarming numbers of infection among heterosexuals, second group of

infected (37.5%), is deeply contradicted. It was this same stereotype,

powered by the disknowledge and discrimination, which dictated this very

proliferation of the disease between and heterosexuals, and it is this same

unknowledge and discrimination that is necessary to combat, the good of health

public and of justice and social equality, were not all citizens, it said.

Constitution of the Portuguese Republic (CRP), equal before the law, and the orientation

sexual recognized as a factor of non-discrimination.

In the previous legislature, the Left Bloc presented in the Assembly of the

Republic a draft resolution that aimed to put an end to this discrimination, and

that was chumped by the Socialist Party with the argument that this

discrimination did not exist. Today we know that it exists and, in a context in which it is

intends to remove the discriminatory barriers concerning citizens

homosexuals, it would be intolerable to maintain these criteria.

The IPS, as a body of the indirect administration of the State, responsible for

coordinate and guide, at the national level, all activities related to the

blood transfusion from the harvest to the administration, has the responsibility of

ensure that no arbitrary exclusion criteria are applied in the

donating blood based on the sexual orientation of the donor and that, on the contrary,

are assured the most stringent criteria that safeguard the health of the

receptors of the donations of blood.

Thus, in the regimental and constitutional terms, the Assembly of the Republic,

meeting in plenary, resolves to recommend to the Government:

The adoption of measures aimed at combating the current discrimination of

homosexuals and bisexuals in the services of blood collection, namely

through:

-From the immediate demand for reformulation of all the questionnaires containing

homophobes, specifically in what concerne matters concerning the

practice of sexual relations between men;

-From the elaboration and dissemination of a normative document of responsibility

exclusive to the Ministry of Health itself, which expressly prohibits the

discrimination of those and donors / those of blood on the basis of their sexual orientation and

clarify that the criteria for suspension of donors are based on the existence of

risky behaviors and not in the existence of risk groups.

Palace of Saint Benedict, November 10, 2009.

The Deputies and Deputies of the Left Bloc,