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The ASUC Senate unanimously passed a bill last Wednesday in opposition to the Food and Drug Administration’s lifetime ban on blood donations from gay men.

The bill, SB 14, garnered full support from senators. Additionally, 16 out of the senate’s 20 members co-sponsored the bill.

Government officials on the national level, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and a number of openly gay and lesbian members of Congress, have also denounced the ban, calling it discriminatory and outdated.

Authored by CalSERVE Senator Caitlin Quinn, the bill calls on ASUC President Deejay Pepito to write a letter to President Barack Obama as well as to Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Barbara Lee expressing the ASUC’s concerns about the FDA’s lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men.

“After talking to some community members, I figured as the queer-endorsed Senator I should take a stand against this institutionalized form of homophobia,” Quinn said in an email.

The FDA ban was established in 1983 due to growing concerns surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic that swept the nation and particularly affected the American gay community. The ban remains in place despite 30 years of technological and medical advancement that allows HIV testing, said UC Berkeley senior Michelle Carney, who co-sponsored the bill.

According to a study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, lifting the ban would allow more than 2.6 million eligible men to make blood donations, providing 219,200 pints of donated blood.

Carney said 24 percent of blood donations for the American Red Cross in the Bay Area comes from high school and college students, making this issue particularly important for members of the UC Berkeley community.

“From organizing the blood drive ourselves (on campus), we as students were tired of seeing our community feel helpless and hopeless,” Carney said.

According to the FDA website, the ban on such donations is “not based on any judgment concerning the donor’s sexual orientation.”

In a statement released in June, however, the AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks), America’s Blood Centers and the Red Cross said they believed that the FDA’s ban “should be modified and donor referral criteria should be made comparable with criteria for other behaviors that pose an increased risk for transmission of transfusion-transmitted infections.”

“I definitely think it’s a really good start,” said UC Berkeley freshman Anthony Barros, who works in Quinn’s office and was involved in writing the bill. “Bringing visibility and awareness of this issue to Cal will be the best first steps to make change on this issue.”

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @jennieyoon_.

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UC Berkeley senior Osaama Saifi jokes, “Being named Osaama, I have a connection to 9/11.” But although Saifi takes the link lightly, he said he has been perceived differently as a Muslim in America since 9/11.

Saifi is a youth leader for the San Francisco chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, and as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 rapidly approaches, he and other Muslim students around UC Berkeley — and around the world — are taking part in the organization’s initiative Muslims for Life to help restore a peaceful image of the Muslim faith.

The event was launched earlier this month by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community as a nationwide campaign to show that terrorists do not represent Muslims or Islam. Collaborating with the American Red Cross at UC Berkeley and UCSF Medical Center, the organization put on a blood drive Wednesday in Pauley Ballroom in the MLK Student Union — just one leg of the United States blood drive initiative, which includes over 200 stops in various cities and universities. The goal is to collect 10,000 units of blood throughout the month of September and to ultimately save approximately 30,000 lives.

Saifi remembers last September, when various religious groups took part in a burning of the sacred book of Islam, the Holy Quran, which he said was a perfect example of the misrepresentation his heritage has faced since 9/11.

“The larger American society needs to understand that what happened on 9/11 is an isolated incident, and it does not mean that all Muslims are bad,” said UC Berkeley fifth-year Nuha Masri. “We want to further participate in society and show them that Muslims are integrated in everyday life. We are part of society, we go to the same schools and eat the same food. We are Americans.”

According to Saifi, the six-hour-long blood drive attracted all different types of people with varied reasons for their donations. While there was a high Muslim turnout, he said the event garnered wide community support, including participants who attended with the sole purpose of donating blood.

“I would do it whether or not it was put on by them. Most people already believe that most Muslim people in the U.S. are good people,” said graduate student Bryan McCulloch. “At least, I do.”

Saifi said that after people donated blood, he was able to sit down with them and talk about the cause. He said general reactions were extremely positive and that people were happy to have helped.

“I just wanted to give blood, and the cause happened to be great as well,” said UC Berkeley junior Sami Syed. “I don’t think that Muslims are to blame for what happened, but this is definitely a good way to give back to the community anyway.”

Saifi said the event was a huge success, and he was happy that people from such different pathways came together for one cause. He added that Muslims for Life is putting on more blood drives this month around the Berkeley area in hopes of promoting the cause.

“(The attacks) did not portray a realistic image of Islam,” he said. “Ten years ago, some Muslims took away the lives of others, and this is us trying to save lives by donating blood and contribute in a way that we can in Berkeley.”

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