Florida shootings put spotlight on blood donations

Las Vegas resident Erin Wise, 32, has been donating blood since high school.

Though she’d neglected to donate recently, the chaos that erupted early Sunday at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, sparked her desire to help.

“There’s so many people trying to donate there that I figure it’s the least I can do,” she said, seated at a table in the United Blood Services center at 6930 W. Charleston Blvd.

Wise, who has friends in Orlando, was one of a few donors who trickled into the center Monday afternoon, offering to donate blood as an expression of support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in light of a massacre that killed 50 people and injured 53.

Blood donations in Florida poured in as social media prompted a discussion on blood shortages and federal guidelines that prevent many gay men from donating.

United Blood Services Nevada Regional Donor Recruitment Manager Jeannine McCoy said the tragedy put a spotlight on blood donations, which have been especially lacking at the organization’s Southern Nevada locations since May.

“We were running lean anyway for blood donations,” she said.

In the club shooting’s immediate aftermath, blood agency OneBlood, which has a presence in Florida, issued a call for Type O negative and O positive blood as well as Type AB blood plasma.

Neither American Red Cross nor United Blood Services local representatives could say whether blood had been sent from Nevada to central Florida to help victims, but nationally, both organizations said they were assisting with Orlando’s blood needs.

As thousands of people lined up to help in Florida, social media buzz turned to Food and Drug Administration guidelines than ban sexually active gay men from donating.

“There are false reports circulating that some FDA rules were being lifted regarding blood donation and this is simply not true,” OneBlood said in a statement. “The blood center is mandated to follow all guidelines for blood donation at all times.”

The FDA recommends that men who have sex with other men wait 12 months without male-to-male sexual activity before giving blood.

The guidelines also suggest deferrals for women who have had “sex during the past 12 months with a man who has had sex with another man.” FDA guidelines allow individuals to self-report and self-identify with regards to gender.

Before December, the FDA suggested an indefinite deferment for male donors who had sex with another male since 1977. Studies prompted the FDA to changed its guideline.

Blood organizations typically adopt FDA guidelines or more stringent ones.

At a table within the Bronze Cafe at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas pastor Charlotte Morgan, who’s been openly lesbian since 1978, recalled a woman telling her to “get out” when she tried to donate blood as a college student in 1982.

“It’s yet another label that, maybe at that time it was needed, but it’s not anymore,” Morgan said.

Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Find @pashtana_u on Twitter.