News Release
For Immediate Release: December 9, 2010
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355
Cigarette Smokers Can Donate Blood, But Men Who Have Sex With Men Can’t – That Should Say Something to Policy Makers!
(Harrisburg) Today the Office of the Surgeon General released “How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease.” The report notes that fear should not just be from lung cancer, but that the first puff on a cigarette sends over 7,000 chemicals to rapidly spread through the body to cause cellular damage in nearly every organ. However, the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, a statewide family values group, notes that smokers are permitted to donate blood, but a man who has had sex with another man – even once – cannot.
“Today’s report was the 30th issued since 1964, each warning about the dangers of exposure to cigarette smoke. It seems the Surgeon General is ignoring dangers for those who engage in homosexual sex especially men who have sex with men. It is safer to be a smoker than to be a homosexual man,” noted Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA. She was referring to the Oxford University International Journal of Epidemiology study which found MSM shorten their lives between 8 and 20 years, while a smoker shortens his or her life six or seven years.
The Centers for Disease Control acknowledges that more than half of all new HIV infections each year are MSM. Additionally, they make up almost half of all people living with HIV. In the past, the CDC has also acknowledged that bisexual men are the bridge for HIV into the heterosexual community.
Because of the high prevalence of HIV infections and other diseases the FDA refuses to allow a man who’s had sex with another man even once since 1977 to give blood. The FDA has taken this extraordinary step because of the highly dangerous homosexual lifestyle and the need to protect the nation’s blood supply.
“It is commendable that the Surgeon General has spent so many of our tax dollars on 30 studies to outline the dangers of smoking, but it would do well if that office took some time to take a hard look at the more dangerous homosexual lifestyle and issue a report of those findings,” further commented Gramley.
# # #
Loading ...