NEW DELHI: Can an LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) person donate blood? The Supreme Court is likely to hear on Tuesday a PIL recently filed by a Delhi-based gay man challenging the constitutional validity of blood donor rules, 2017.
The petition of Sharif D Rangnekar, director of Rainbow Literature Festival, is drafted by lawyer Rohin Bhatt and filed by Ibad Mushtaq.
The blood donor rules were issued by the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) and National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) and others. These permanently restrain transgenders, female sex workers and LGBTQI persons from donating blood.
Rangnekar said that the rules were based on a highly prejudicial and presumptive view taken in the 1980s in the US. Many countries, such as the US, UK, Canada, Israel and others, have revisited these guidelines and come up with fresh ones that do not impose a blanket restriction on gay men or gender queer persons from donating blood.
“It is presumed that a particular group of persons may be suffering from sexually transmitted diseases. Medical technology and education, especially in the field of haematology, has progressed tremendously. The screening of donors is conducted for every donation before a transfusion,” says Rangnekar, in his PIL, a copy of which is accessed by this newspaper.
“Today, a blanket prohibition does not stand to reason,” says the PIL requesting the top court to pass appropriate orders.
“The blanket prohibition is also a violation of the right to equality, dignity and life protected under Articles 14, 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution,” it argues.
“The ban does not afford full membership of living in a society of LGBTQ+ community and thus, reduces them to a second-class citizenship,” it says.
Rangnekar mentions that clauses 12 and 51 of general criteria under blood donor guidelines and blood donor referral, 2017, are discriminatory and unconstitutional as they exclude gay/LGBTQI persons, permanently, from donating blood.
Rangnekar has sought a court direction to the Centre to frame guidelines that allow gay and LGBTQI persons to donate blood, with reasonable restrictions based on “screen and defer” or “assess and test” policies.