“I look toward working with Jo-Ann Yoo and her colleagues as we work to combat hate, promote economic development, help the impoverished and all of the issues important to everyone.” “Queens County is recognized for its diversity in so many areas - culture, customs, languages, religions - and AAF understands this,” Stavisky said. Stavisky noted AAF’s “long record of providing research, advocacy and education services” to the Asian American community. They are on the ground and on the frontlines, and I look forward to continuing to work with its outstanding team.” Congresswoman Grace Meng speaks at the opening of the Asian American Federation’s new office in Flushing on Thursday, May 26. “From combating anti-Asian hate to assisting individuals and small businesses, the Asian American Federation’s work is crucial. “So many in the Asian American community call our borough home and this new location will help the Asian American Federation do an even better job in fighting for Asian Americans living and working in our local neighborhoods,” Meng said. While congratulating AAF on the opening of their new office, Queens lawmakers spoke about the challenges facing the AAPI community.
I commend Executive Director Jo-Ann Yoo for her tremendous work that has brought this essential resource to life,” Kim said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2022.“The new Asian American Federation office in Flushing will help us to expand this critical partnership and extend our services even deeper into the community at a time when they need it most. All donated blood is tested and screened before it is given to patients. The blood agency believes asking about sexual behaviour will allow it to more reliably assess the risk of infections such as HIV that can be transmitted through transfusions. If they have, they would need to wait three months since that activity before donating blood. If any potential donor replies yes, they would then be asked whether they have had anal sex with any of those partners. The blood service is moving toward basing screening on higher-risk sexual behaviour such as anal sex.īy the end of September, all potential donors will be asked if they have had new or multiple sexual partners in the last three months, no matter their gender or sexual orientation. But it took years and $5 million worth of research into safety before it was recommended to Health Canada.Ĭanadian Blood Services, which runs the blood donation program, indicated it was confident the ban on sex workers giving blood could happen by the fall if approved by Health Canada. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals promised to scrap the ban on gay men donating blood during the 2015 election campaign. The current lifetime ban on sex workers giving blood also extends to people who have had sex with a sex worker or exchanged money or drugs for sex. It doesn't end if it gets reduced to one year," she added. "Right now we are looking at a year but we will continue to look at it in future. She said the review was part of a drive to make sure blood donation policies were more inclusive and equitable. The length of time gay men were banned from giving blood was gradually reduced before being scrapped completely last month.Ĭatherine Lewis, a spokeswoman for Canadian Blood Services, said it had made the request to Health Canada to end the lifelong ban on sex workers donating blood in the past few weeks, having done research to ensure the recommendation would keep the blood supply safe. The move follows an end last month to the ban on gay and bisexual men from donating blood, which was welcomed by MPs and LGBTQ advocates.Ĭanadian Blood Services said it would be prepared to recommend that Health Canada reduce the time sex workers have to wait before donating blood to less than a year, but wanted to make changes incrementally. The ban, introduced 45 years ago, is set to be replaced by a one-year "deferral" after paid sex work. The blood-donation service this month recommended to Health Canada that it abolish the lifetime ban on donation by people who have taken money or drugs in exchange for sex.
OTTAWA - Canadian Blood Services wants to scrap a lifetime ban on sex workers giving blood in a further move to make blood donation more equitable.