FDA Bans Gay Sperm

Another great headline in today's Trib:

FDA to Implement Gay Sperm Donor Rules

By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer
Published May 5, 2005, 1:49 PM CDT

NEW YORK -- To the dismay of gay-rights activists, the Food and Drug Administration is about to implement new rules recommending that any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor.

The FDA has rejected calls to scrap the provision, insisting that gay men collectively pose a higher-than-average risk of carrying the AIDS virus. Critics accuse the FDA of stigmatizing all gay men rather than adopting a screening process that focuses on high-risk sexual behavior by any would-be donor, gay or straight.

"Under these rules, a heterosexual man who had unprotected sex with HIV-positive prostitutes would be OK as a donor one year later, but a gay man in a monogamous, safe-sex relationship is not OK unless he's been celibate for five years," said Leland Traiman, director of a clinic in Alameda, Calif., that seeks gay sperm donors.

Here's what I think: the right has been arguing in bad faith and these guys know very well that the bunk they (and some on the left) have been spewing about homosexuality being a choice is bullshit. They're betting it has a genetic basis and trying to reduce the number of children who inherit the elusive "gay gene." This is not mere discrimination, it's an attempt to prevent gay people from reproducing. I can think of no other reasonable explanation.

I mean, if there have been any reported cases of someone getting HIV from a sperm bank, please let me know. Trope? Anyone?