Picture the egregious scene: you go to donate blood, aiming to do a small good deed, but are stopped from doing so because of your sexuality.
Yet as a viral TikTok has pointed out, this is a policy that still happens today. Over the weekend, Aussie TikToker Luke O’Halloran, going by the username @lukeeeohallloran, filmed his brother Scott O’Halloran angrily calling out the Australian Red Cross.
After Luke reveals that he’s booked an appointment to give blood, Scott can’t contain his frustration. “Let me not mix up my words – the Red Cross are today’s modern-day homophobic organisation,” he declares. “It’s a privilege for you to be able to give blood because you are not gay and I am and that’s why I’m not allowed to give it.”
Scott adds: “I could save somebody’s sick child’s life by donating my blood, but because I have sex with a man I am not allowed to.”
When Luke then asks his brother if he’s spoke to the Red Cross personally, Scott replies, “Yes I have told them and they blocked me from their fu*king Instagram handles.”
“I’m sick of them and I hear their ads every single day in the car and it tells me I should be saving lives and considering donating my blood, but if I was to go in there they’d turn me away because I’m gay. It’s unbelievable,” he continues.
Compared to Luke’s other popular videos, which often see him making comical vignettes with his “sassy brother”, it’s clear how impassioned Scott is in the Red Cross clip. At the time of writing, the TikTok has been liked over 95,000 times, showing that a lot of other people care about this issue as well.
Under the current Australian Red Cross Lifeblood guidelines, a man who has had sex with another man in the past three months isn’t allowed to donate blood. Just two years ago, the deferral period was a much longer 12 months.
Other countries have been relaxing such policies, however, with the U.K. moving to an individual risk assessment system for all donors, regardless of their sexuality, last year.
@lukeandsassyscott Watch my brother go from 0 to 100 🩸 @scottoscotto @Australian Red Cross Lifeblood #brother #family #gay #fyp #blood #donateblood
