Many teenagers in Taiwan, having reached the age of 17, have a special yet untypical birthday wish. They are not hoping for a grand present nor rushing out to see their first NC-17 movie, but line up at one of the many white trailers parked by the roadside, branded with red crosses, to donate blood.
Unfortunately for some, this simple wish will never come true.
Since 2001, the Department of Health's (DOH) blood-donation regulations clearly state that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and other AIDS high-risk groups are banned from donating blood.
Changes
After continuous protests by gay and gender-rights groups, new draft regulations were unveiled two weeks ago. The words "gays, lesbians and bisexuals" no longer appear in the regulations and were replaced with "Intravenous drug users/addicts, men who have intercourse with men (MSM) and hemophilia patients are forever banned from donating blood." Despite the refinement of the DOH's original wording, the corrections sparked protests once more from gay rights groups.
"They [DOH] took care of the `identity' part by not saying `gays,' but what do you call MSMs then?" said Ashley Wu (
A DOH official surnamed Chang responded to the vociferous protests by saying that these groups misunderstood the regulations and that the requirements do not discriminate against the "actors" (ie, gays).
Gay-rights activist J.J. Lai (賴正哲) said that the regulations discriminated against gays and were too problematic and flawed to be practical.
Discrimination
"These regulations are discriminatory because anyone who doesn't practice safe sex falls in the high-risk group, not just gays," he said. "They equate AIDS with being gay, doing nothing to help AIDS prevention."
"Furthermore, how do you know if somebody is gay or not? I might be gay today and love women tomorrow," Lai said, referring to the regulations' possible implementation problems.
"The Taiwanese requirements follow blood-donation regulations of countries such as the US and Canada, which ban homosexuals from donating blood," Chang said in response to the protests.
The US regulations were made in 1983, when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended donor-screening procedures to exclude individuals at increased risk for transmitting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
In addition, the FDA stated that "although a potential individual donor may practice safe sex, persons who have participated in high-risk behaviors are, as a group, still considered to be at increased risk of transmitting HIV." The FDA also said that "safe sex reduces, but does not eliminate, the risk of AIDS transmission."
Studies have also shown that many people who believe they are practicing safe sex are actually not doing so, either because of poor technique (ie, incorrect use of condoms) or lack of consistency (ie, proper safe-sex practices are not used in every sexual encounter), according to the FDA.
However, Ashley Wu spoke of two countries that changed their policies and lifted the ban on blood donations by gays: Italy and South Africa.
"Italy, a Catholic country that had long discriminated against gays, started allowing blood and organ donations by gays in 2000. South Africa decided that such a ban was against constitutional and human rights and changed its regulations in 2000," he said. "Taiwan does not see the changes and improvements in other countries. That's why some things have remained the same here."
The debate continues, with adamant arguments on both sides. Perhaps this is a problem beyond the issue of discrimination, but instead touching on safe-sex and AIDS education in Taiwan.
In Taiwan, sex is not a subject that is easily broached. Teachers shy away from such a topic at school and teenagers are left with incomplete or incorrect knowledge and perceptions about sex.
`Misunderstanding'
As Chu Wei-cheng (朱偉誠), a professor who has researched gay issues and literature at National Taiwan University, said, "The government's ban on gays donating blood is based on a misunderstanding of the AIDS problem."
The public's ignorance of the AIDS issue leads to misunderstandings, and misunderstandings often lead to discrimination. Before continuing the debate, maybe sex education is something that needs to be addressed first, he said.
But perhaps a bit of good news for gay-rights groups is that the draft regulations are still under discussion at the DOH, being reviewed by academics and experts. Changes may be on the way.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS