MOSCOW, Monday April 10, 2006 (GayRussia.ru Wire)  –  Gay activists in Russia have written to officials raising the issue of the ban on blood donation by homosexuals which, like in many other countries, is still in force in Russia.

The letter has been addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Development Mikhail Zurabov.  Also receiving the letter are Viktor Shudegov (head of Parliament upper chamber committee on science, culture, education, health and ecology),  Tatyana Yakovleva (head of State Duma committee on health),  Yuri Chaika (Minister of Justice) and  Vladimir Ustinov (General Prosecutor).

In their letter, activists at GayRussia.ru stress that according to the instructions on medical observation of donors of blood and its components, adopted by a decree of the Ministry of Health on September 14, 2001, the list of those who is categorically forbidden to donate blood includes “persons in the risk groups (homosexuals, drug addicts, prostitutes)”.

Russian gay activists say that since May 1993 homosexual consensual relations between adults in private are not considered as a crime in Russia.  Since1999, Russian psychiatry switched to international classification of mental illnesses and does not consider homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Activists also quote provisions of the Russian constitution which guarantees the right to respect for private life, personal and family secrets, as well as forbidding discrimination in any form.

According to the Russian Federal Act on blood donation, any person who reached the age of 18 and passed medical tests can become a donor of blood and its components.

Head of Project GayRussia.ru, Nikolai Alekseev, said that the “ban on blood donations by homosexuals is currently the only direct discriminatory provision on the basis of sexual orientation in the Russian legislation”.

“Such ban, which is maintained to stigmatise and create negative image of sexual minorities in the society, is not properly enforced in real donor practice and contradicts with the Russian Constitution and Federal Law,” he said.

Russian activists stress that keeping such ban is disastrous not only for homosexuals but also for the necessity to bring qualified medical help to those who is in great need of it.  They asked Russian authorities to stop the ban.  And they warned the authorities that if no action was taken to stop the discrimination, “we reserve the right to start civil and legal action in order to bring an end to this discriminatory situation”.