In an office on the street full of electronics stores named after the poet Sayat Nova in the center of Yerevan, the Armenian capital, come those who have nowhere to go to talk about their sexual orientation. The place is the headquarters of Pink Armenia, the oldest organization for the defense and protection of the rights of the LGTBI community in the country; a bright room decorated with rainbow and transgender flags where its founder Mamikon Hovsepyan and his team have been fighting for small victories for 16 years. They achieved the latter together with other organizations and activists in January 2023, when the ban on blood donation to men who have sexual relationships with other men was lifted.
A decade ago, nearly 50 countries prevented gay and bisexual men from donating blood. In 2014, as part of a men’s case against the French Ministry of Health, which had banned donations since 1983, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union issued an opinion: “The mere fact that a man maintains or has had sexual relations with another.” Male sexual behavior does not in itself represent a high risk of infection with serious blood-borne infectious diseases. Two years later, the French country replaced the ban with another, less restrictive measure requiring sexual abstinence for a certain period, which was also abolished in March 2022.
Armenia was among the ten states that suspended this type of ban between 2022 and 2023 (along with Germany, Austria, Cyprus, Slovenia, France, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania and Switzerland), although it maintains the requirement to extend the ban not having maintained relationships sexual activity in the months prior to donation. Belgium and Estonia requested the same and maintained the requirement but shortened the deadline. The USA, for its part, has abolished the requirement of abstinence, but demands that a monogamous relationship be maintained.
If a male sat there, it was believed that they could take his blood because he wasn’t gay, but if a trans person arrived, they could be turned away because of our policy
Since 2013, the Armenian Ministry of Health has banned homosexuals from donating blood because they belong to the risk group and are considered “promiscuous.” Hovsepyan says that in practice the veto did not mean hospitals would ask about sexual orientation. “It was suspected,” he clarifies. “If a man sat there, they believed they could take his blood because he wasn’t gay, but if a trans person arrived, they could be turned away because of our policy.”
Behavior regarding sexual orientation
To put pressure on the ban to be lifted, the organizations set up a small working group and started discussions with the various ministries. Their main argument was the ineffectiveness of the measure. Data shows that regulating blood donations is much more effective when it focuses on the donor’s behavior rather than their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Mamikon Hovsepyan at the headquarters of Pink Armenia, an organization that defends the rights of LGBTI people.Lola García-Ajofrín
The argument of the ineffectiveness of the measure to curb transmission through transfusions was crucial in the negotiations to achieve their goal, Hovsepyan recalls. Activists told officials that it just doesn’t work because of the ban It was based on the identity of the donor and not his behavior.
In addition, action was taken against the spread of false information. Recall that in 2016, Smbat Daghbashyan, chief hematologist in the Armenian Ministry of Health, argued on Epress.am that the ban was due to the high prevalence of HIV infection among homosexuals. However, LGTBI groups defended with statistics that this statement was incorrect. According to a report by the Eurasian Coalition on Men’s Health (ECOM, 2018), HIV transmission in Armenia occurs primarily through heterosexual contacts (68%), followed by injecting drug use (22.5%). Transmission of HIV between men According to the same study, sex with other men accounts for barely 3.4% of all registered cases.
The founder of Pink Armenia emphasizes that the ban is not only discriminatory but also pointless. The latest UNAIDS report, released just days before World AIDS Day on December 1, shows that Eastern Europe is one of the regions where new HIV infections have increased the most since 2010, by 49%.
After many meetings, emails and justifications, the activists managed to get the Ministry of Health to change the regulation. “Now it’s much more progressive because it doesn’t target people’s identities,” Hovsepyan adds. Currently, blood donation requirements in Armenia no longer discriminate based on sexual orientation. Instead, a new item has been added to the list of contraindications to blood donation: sexual relations with an unusual partner in the last six months. Further requirements are that you are of legal age, do not suffer from infectious or cardiovascular diseases, have not undergone any surgery, including an abortion, in the last six months or have not returned from a malaria-endemic area.
“All countries should end discriminatory laws and policies against LGBTI people who donate blood,” he published in last January Your X account, the ILGA Europe organization. “The exclusion of gay men was a completely unacceptable measure,” says Hayk (not his real name), an 18-year-old gay Armenian. “But I don’t think it will change anything in society. For me, it is just a norm and a duty, not a gift from the government,” he adds.
A measure from the eighties
In the mid-1980s, governments began restricting blood donations based on sexual orientation. After the emergence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the late 1970s, and at a time when tests to detect the virus in blood were not yet well developed, governments around the world decided to ban blood donations to at-risk groups. Many countries then included homosexual men in the risk group. Armenia was one of them.
From Pink’s office, they celebrated the news of the end of this measure with caution. The country is one of the three worst countries for the LGTBI community According to an annual study by ILGA-Europe, 49 countries in Europe and Central Asia are only behind Turkey and Azerbaijan. But it was precisely due to the change in blood donation requirements that Armenia was able to increase its score in 2023.
According to the organization ILGA-Europe, Armenia is one of the three worst countries on a list of 49 countries in Europe and Central Asia for the LGTBI community.
Hovsepyan explains that they focus on small actions like this because in Armenia “political leaders are afraid of big changes” for fear of not strengthening their power again in future elections. “But they dare to make minor changes through the ministries without making noise,” he adds.
There is still a lot of work to do, he admits. “In Armenia there are no laws to protect the LGBTBIQ community from hate crimes,” he complains. “Many people are afraid of coming out because they can face many problems after coming out.” For example, mention cases of domestic violence by parents or siblings. When it comes to gay men, they use physical violence against them; “Corrective rape occurs among lesbian women, although complaints are few,” he adds. Others hide their situation by becoming financially dependent on their families for fear that if rejected they would not be able to leave their home and pay rent.
The secret creates unbearable torment, says Hovsepyan. Some of those who dare to tell pass by his office, located on a street named after a poet. “To find friends, to document or to seek advice from professionals, lawyers or psychologists.” This support is essential to avoid fatal consequences like the case a few days ago in November, when a 17-year-old Armenian teenager took his own life , after he was harassed because of his sexual orientation.
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