IN sits down with Dr. Dryden to discuss blood donation barriers, her work fighting systemic racism in Canada’s healthcare system, and their new book Got Blood To Give…
In a society still struggling with the legacies of systemic anti-Black racism and homophobia, Dr. OmiSoore H. Dryden, a Black queer femme and leading scholar, throws a spotlight on one particularly poignant topic in her new book, Got Blood to Give: Anti-Black Homophobia in Blood Donation. This meticulously researched work unravels the history of how discriminatory practices became woven into the fabric of Canada’s blood donation system, leaving a lasting impact on Black and Black 2SLGBTQI+ communities.
In this exclusive interview, Dr. Dryden shares the personal journey behind her 25 years of research, sheds light on the historical roots of discrimination in Canadian blood donation and offers a vision for a more inclusive future.
Got Blood To Give is a culmination of 25 years of research and hard work. Was there a specific event that sparked this journey?
I have been thinking and actively writing about Black and BlaQueer and trans people, blood, and donation since 2000, but this book is not an end result. Working at York University during this time, I was involved in meetings between campus student organizations and university officials (such as the Office of Student Affairs) about the ongoing donor clinics held on campuses, including York University. In these meetings, it was revealed that Canadian Blood Services (CBS) relied heavily on university populations for blood donations and wanted to involve students at a young age (over the age of 17 in Ontario and the age of 18 in Quebec) to create lifelong donors. Therefore, protesting on-campus blood donor clinics became an effective form of direct action; these protests obviously caught the attention of the blood agency and Health Canada. And the push to challenge the donor screening practices travelled to campuses across the country. This is where I began my unofficial research into donor practices in Canada. When I began my PhD studies is when I undertook my official research. This book is a cumulation of all that work.
Has there always been a history of discrimination in Canadian Blood Services?
Yes! In the 1940s, the Canadian Red Cross Society was responsible for blood collection. Under direction from the American Red Cross Society, all blood was segregated based on the perceived race of the donor to ensure that white recipients did not get blood from non-white people. This was far from scientific, but it was instituted as policy in order to produce a ‘safe’ blood supply. This lasted, as official policy, until the end of World War Two.
In the 1980s, the Canadian Red Cross Society, under increasing pressure from the US Centers for Disease Control (and without public consultation), created and released a pamphlet asking people who were considered to be at ‘high risk’ of getting AIDS to refrain from donating blood. The people they identified would come to be known as the 4Hs – “homosexuals,” Haitian people (regardless of citizenship), heroin drug users and those with hemophilia. As could be expected, this was rightly met with outrage from gay communities, Haitian communities and others. [Views on] sexual morality fuelled the stereotypes of this transmission. This was fed into by a puritan belief that sex was only for procreation, and sex for pleasure was lascivious and immoral. For this reason, among others, Black people and men who have sex with men (and Black men who have sex with men) were expected to take ‘ownership’ of and assume ‘responsibility’ for the virus by not donating blood. This ‘choice’ was presented as the only way to keep the blood supply safe. What we know is that the focus on perceived identity is not a reliable screening practice, and this did not prevent the tainted blood scandal from happening, nor did it minimize it.
There is just not enough room in this interview to delve into the anti-Black homophobia and transphobia embedded in early AIDS research, and it is important to state that some of this discrimination remains today..
Focusing on identity and not on behaviour or activities was a significant cause of the tainted blood crisis. CBS was formed in 1998, after the tainted blood crisis, and continued some of these questionable practices.
Why is it important to focus on the experiences of Black queer and trans people?
It is important to disrupt the single story of gay blood. Focusing on Black queer and trans people guides us in this disruption. Any deviation from the single or simple story is dismissed as subjective, not researched, or untrustworthy. How queerness, Blackness and racialization interlock becomes a critical factor in determining whether and how we understand a more inclusive blood system.
While gay activism was focused on having more gay blood included, it ignored whether Black queer and trans people could donate blood. It ignored the experiences of trans communities. What I’m offering in this book is a queer- and trans-inclusive activism, one where anti-Black racism is understood as also a queer issue, and not an adjacent concern that can be used as a comparator.
As I demonstrate in the book, “Black” and “gay” are often positioned as monolithic categories which can be compared but cannot exist in the same moment. And if we are Black queer people, we are asked for our loyalty – are we more queer than Black, or are we more Black than queer? And that is, to say it bluntly, a very racist question.
While CBS and some others would argue that the questions about African heritage were not about race, my research demonstrates that this is simply not the case. I would strongly suggest that folks check out the entire book, but especially Chapter 4, which gets into the weeds of how the questions about Africa were used and deployed in unscientific and anti-Black ways.
What ‘donor protocols’ would you like to see implemented to begin the correcting process?
My research focuses primarily on the systemic anti-Black racism and homophobia found in the narratives of HIV and AIDS transmission. I would like to see a blood system that worked more closely with AIDS activists, and all the work done around anti-racist safer sex practices, the positive effects of PrEP and PEP, and the efforts to disrupt the social and structural determinants of health, specifically systemic anti-Black racism (and anti-Black homophobia).
There was a big push to have gay blood included in blood donation, but not one to have Black gay blood included. And this is important to note. As I demonstrate in the book, for much of the activism surrounding gay blood, the experiences of gay men were often compared to the experiences of Black people, specifically those in the United States. This does a few things, and it ignores the very real presence of Black queer and trans people in Canada, and our unique experiences.
A more inclusive anti-racist queer activism would address the interconnectedness of racism, homophobia and transphobia in the history of donation, instead of setting them up as a hierarchy. Collectively we are stronger and can produce more substantive change. This would include accountability from the blood operators, and a new way forward that is donor and recipient focused, understands the importance of a diverse donor pool, and [offers] the insights to engage in the difficult work of anti-racist equity – one that understands the importance of disrupting structural white supremacy and heterosexism – for the benefit of us all.
Dr. OmiSoore H. Dryden’s new book Got Blood to Give: Anti-Black Homophobia in Blood Donation is available in select bookstores across the country. For more information, visit www.omisooredryden.com.
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