Death Ain't Healthy

No matter how politically incorrect that fact may be:

Thus, this past March, the FDA held yet another workshop to review the male-sex-with-male (MSM) policy, and will convene the Blood Product Advisory Committee (BPAC) in mid-July to render an official decision. Based on recommendations made at the workshop, it is very likely that BPAC will finally recommend a modified policy. If they do, gays will claim a victory over "discrimination," and that is all that will be reported in the sound-bite media.

Although the idea that the FDA has been arbitrarily discriminating against gays is nonsense, no one in the biomedical establishment will attempt to counter this assertion because the very purpose of the change is to allay the "perception of discrimination." Whichever new policy is enacted could still essentially be a lifetime ban.

Once we delve below the headlines, we find that far from discriminating against homosexuals, our biomedical establishment has gone out of its way to mollify them, even to the point of compromising public health. While the medical literature on the dangers of homosexual behavior is massive, and readily available on the web if you search for it, it is omitted from literature directed specifically to the public. That the FDA now finds itself in the awkward position of repealing a successful blood-safety policy in order to ward off hysteria over "discrimination," is largely due to the fact that our public health officials have always failed to state plainly that the gay lifestyle is dangerous.

Let's not have any of the propagandist's line-scuffing about behavior and orientation here. Orientation may well be innate, but that does not make behavior so. One could be homosexual yet celibate. One could be homosexual yet engage only in sexual practices which do not increase risk of disease and death (I'm not talking the false security of prophylactics here). Or one could choose to engage in the full panoply of high-risk behavior and pay the price for it eventually. Among male homosexuals, Option 3 appears depressingly to be the norm.

The public health implications are obvious and profound. As with any high risk group, the government ought to take appropriate measures to encourage the reduction of behaviors detrimental to public health. The ban on blood donation does not infringe upon the rights of any homosexual; it protects us all. It is not limited to homosexuals, either---if you've had malaria, for example, your blood-donating days are done.

Political correctness can kill. The real question is why so many homosexual advocates are willing to risk our lives for their self-esteem.