Héma-Québec Creates 2nd Class Citizens

A post about blood drives seems almost totally off-topic for a pop culture blog. But pop culture isn't only about television and film... our laws and policies play a vital role as well! After all, every day we are are exposed to various rules and regulations that affect us all. Oh and Héma-Québec also uses different mediums to advertise. There. Connection found.

Giving the Gift of Life

Anyways, I am constantly told that to donate blood is to give the gift of life. I see this message broadcast on TV, in various ads printed in newspapers/on billboards, and whenever a blood-drive is taking place. Actually, February 14th was the day when a bill was passed to have the week of June 14th declared as National Blood Donor Week. To give the gift of life legitimizes the donor’s fluids, ultimately granting another life humanity.

But Héma-Québec uses a form of screening to insure safety in its fluids. Héma’s exclusionary “screening” tactics go beyond the idea gay blood being bad blood; it pushes all deviant bodies who cannot donate blood into a realm of dehumanization. After all, my blood apparently cannot be used to give the gift of life. Therefore, according to Héma, my blood is illegitimate, a fluid that holds neither value nor credibility. In fact, regulations have been set-up to ensure that my fluids never mix with those deemed “legitimate”.

Bad Blood & More

Moving further in the bad blood debates, and jumping over gay male protest, you find more illegitimate bodies that Héma-Québec further dehumanizes. For starters, females are affected by the same gay-blood screening process. Any females who have slept with a man who slept with a man (MSM) cannot give blood for a period for 12 months. A year seems arbitrary as it exceeds the window period for an AIDS test.

It is important to understand that by only talking about gay blood, many who do not identify as gay are lost in the protests. Intravenous drug users, MSM (but not gay-identified), anyone who has paid for sex, people who have spent 3 consecutive days in prison or more, and people who have either slept with or are from a select list of countries, are all dehumanized as their fluids are deemed illegitimate as well.

Critiques & Citizenship

Critics to queer activism sometimes imply that these groups are high risk for HIV/AIDS. But look closer into these (heteronormative) rules and one essentially finds a racially-charged screening process that ignores rising rates of HIV in normative populations.

*This is a photo of the current management committee at Héma. Maybe this helps explain their exclusionary practices.

My major issue here is one of citizenship. When my body’s fluids are deemed illegitimate, I’m effectively being told that I am a lesser citizen than those who fit Héma’s model. Because of this risk assessment way of thinking, a second-class body is created in order to protect the citizens that conform to Héma-Québec’s mandated human. Cite safety if you will, but through this exclusion, you are also dehumanizing we “others”.

*This post was adapted from an editorial that I submitted to The Link in response to the article Screening for Gay that was written by Rita Cant.