Madam Speaker, many of us know that there is often an urgent appeal for blood, and the Canadian Blood Services always needs more blood donations.
There are a few people in my life, very good friends, who would love to donate blood but they cannot, because they are gay. This government has promised for many years to lift the ban on gay blood donations but has not, and I find that really disappointing for many reasons.
There are better ways to screen blood donations. In fact, countries around the world have adopted lifestyle-based questionnaires to lift the ban on gay blood. For example, Argentina, Israel, Italy, Poland, Russia, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Ukraine, Peru, Chile, Brazil and Bulgaria have but not here in Canada.
The reality is that the gay blood ban, which has been perpetuated by the Liberal government in spite of promises to lift it, remains. It stigmatizes gay men, because it perpetuates myths and stigma about gay men. I find that unfortunate to say the least. I want my friends to be able to give blood and not face this stigma.
My question to my colleague is very simple. Why is the government perpetuating homophobia and not lifting the gay blood ban?