Transcript
The unnamed man says officials simply made an assessment he was homosexual without asking him any questions - and he was embarrassed to be told in front of other donors that he could not give blood. Fiji politician and activist Roshika Deo says its not an isolated incident.
"This has been an issue for a very long time. There has been incidents where a lot of other people have been asked not to donate blood because of their perceived sexual orientation. And this has been raised before and all the time it has not been taken seriously or addressed substantively."
The Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission Director Ashwin Raj says he intends to investigate the policy. He says its unconstitutional as it unfairly discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation. Human Rights lawyer Aman Ravindra Singh agrees.
"The constitution of Fiji provides for every citizen to be free from discrimination so firstly this is a direct breach of the constitution. And also this policy violates basic fundamental human rights of a person."
Fiji's Health Ministry says it can't comment as it's now seeking legal advice on its policies and how they're applied. But it says its policies are informed by WHO guidelines. Those guidelines state that:
"Certain sexual behaviours have been shown by surveillance data to be associated with a high risk of transmission of HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C... High risk sexual behaviours include ... men having sex with men."
The guidelines go on to recommend blood donation be deferred for individuals whose sexual behaviour puts them at high risk of transfusion-transmissible infections. WHO HIV Medical Officer Madeleine Salva says people engaging in other high risk sexual behaviours such as having multiple partners, sex workers, and their clients are also deferred from blood donation in the guidelines and they don't single out gay men.
"All of us doesn't want to challenge the sanctity of the safety of the blood supply so that is just the main thing. It's not about discriminating a specific person or a specific group. That is why part of WHO's recommendations is ensuring that when countries promote blood donation programme they should give information already about who should be the eligible ones and who should be self-deferring."
But Roshika Deo says the WHO guidelines don't reflect the reality in Fiji and the Health Ministry's policy plays into prejudices about the gay community.
"It is a guideline that is based on the general global context. However in Fiji we do not have cases of HIV and AIDS more prominent in gay people. There was research done of people living with HIV and AIDS and it revealed that 85 percent transfer is by heterosexuals."
But Doctor Salva says it's common in the Pacific for people not to identify as homosexual for cultural reasons.
"Other analysis is that the males who are coming here are they just claiming that they are heterosexuals and they are not admitting are they just claiming that they are heterosexual and they are not admitting that they are also having homosexual partnership. Sometimes people would come into that oh ok I don't like because of culture I don't want to be judged and I will just say heterosexual."
However Rainbow Pride Foundation Executive Director Isikeli Vulavou says the Fiji Health Ministry needs to update its policy in line with other countries that have removed or reduced the lifetime ban for blood donations on men who have had sex with men.
"We view this restrictions on donations, you know on prohibiting in Fiji's case them naming them homosexuals, bisexual men, and transexuals. We view this restriction as based on homophobia and they are not based on valid medical concerns. Because these donations we know that they are rigorously tested."
And lawyer Aman Ravindra Singh says the policy is another blatant attack on the LGBTI community.
"This has happened in the past. The Prime Minister is on record asking members of the gay community to relocate to Iceland. This happened last year, early last year. And with this recent policy being made public once again it is very clear that this Government does target members of the minority community."
Fiji's Health Ministry says it's received no formal complaint about the latest incident.
