by Rex Wockner
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Buenos Aires' Comunidad Homosexual Argentina filed suit June 14 to overturn a national ban on blood donation by gays, calling it discriminatory.
The group lodged its claim in the Buenos Aires Administrative Litigation Court, alleging that the ban violates the federal constitution, city law and international human-rights treaties.
CHA's Telam Cesar Cigliutti said the ban stigmatizes homosexuality by excluding those who acknowledge their homosexuality, or LGBTI identity, in a questionnaire donors must fill out.
He said what officials really need to know is whether a potential donor has HIV, hepatitis or syphilis, not whether he or she is gay.
The questionnaire should not ask about sexual orientation or sexual practices, Cigliutti said, though an inquiry about unprotected sex within the past six months might be permissible, he conceded.
