Jasmine Kaiser has filed suit in King County, WA, Superior Court against CSL Plasma, Inc., a for profit company that pays donors for plasma as much as $200 a month because the company refused to let her donate last June because she is transgender.
Company representatives told Ms. Kaiser that she was banned for life because of her status.
They told her that they would inform other blood centers that she was on a lifetime deferral list.
--David Ward, attorney with Legal Voice
Ward,
Gender Justice, and Isaac Ruiz of the law firm
Keller Rohrback filed the complaint, arguing that denying Ms. Kaiser the right to donate violates the 2006 Washington state law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.
Ward noted that transgender people face almost daily discrimination in everything from housing to health care.
Washington law specifically prohibits discrimination based on a person’s gender identity or expression, and it has since 2006. We feel the company’s treatment of Ms. Kaiser is a clear violation of the law. It is based on nothing more than bias against transgender people.
And it is time that this kind of discrimination be taken seriously and not say, 'Well, why would somebody sue about that?
--Ward
By fighting this legal battle in Washington, we will be one step closer to eliminating what we believe is a company-wide policy discriminating against transgender people.
--Kathryn Knudsen, Keller Rohrback
Transgender people deserve equality, plain and simple. We took Jasmine’s case because we want to fight ignorance and encourage other people to speak up and fight for their rights.
--Ruiz
The US Food and Drug Administration regards all blood donation applicants' sex to be determined at birth and classifies all transgender women as "men who have sex with men," regardless of whether or not they ever have sex with men.
The advocate confirmed with FDA spokeswoman Tara Goodin that:
To the FDA, everyone transgender is a gay man.
In December, Goodin told The Advocate that the FDA "recommends that genetic males be considered as males for donation purposes, even after gender-altering surgery," and "with regard to blood donor deferral policies in general, the ultimate determination of donor suitability is made by the medical director of the blood or plasma establishment," including the possibility of adopting more "stringent" deferral criteria than what the FDA recommends.
In a related case in Minnesota (Scott v. CSL Plasma, Inc., U.S. Dist. Ct. File No. 13-CV-2616 JNE/JJK), Lisa Scott brought a similar lawsuit t federal district court based on Minnesota anti-discrimination law.
Scott alleges that she has never had sex with a man, either before or after her gender- reassignmentsurgery. (FirstAmended Complaint 6-7,ECF No. 18). TheFDA's policy of deferring plasma donations from men who have had sex with men is therefore not a bar to the cause of action asserted in the First Amended Complaint.
--Denial of Defendant's Motion for Judgment
We know that CSL Plasma’s discriminatory policy is affecting transgender individuals nationwide. It takes the brave actions of people like Ms. Kaiser and Ms. Scott to right this wrong.
--Jill Gaulding, Gender Justice