FDA Recommends Allowing Gay Men to Donate Blood
The Federal Drug Administration has drafted a policy seeking the removal of a ban that prevents gay men from donating blood.
The ban originally came into effect in 1985 when HIV tests took a lot longer to obtain results. Today, the virus can be detected within 9 days of testing.
With many people viewing the ban to be discriminatory, the FDA has now proposed a new policy that allows gay men to be blood donors.
However according to the new guidelines, men would have to abstain from having sex with other men for at least a year before donating blood.
The draft proposal states, "Male donors previously deferred because of a history of sex with another man, even one time, since 1977, may be eligible to donate provided that they have not had sex with another man during the past 12 months and they meet all other donor eligibility criteria."
FDA then also went on to cite examples of other countries like Japan, Argentina, UK, Brazil, Australia, Sweden and Hungary - who had also placed a one year deferral on blood donation.
HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy said in a statement, "While the new policy is a step in the right direction toward an ideal policy that reflects the best scientific research, it still falls far short of a fully acceptable solution because it continues to stigmatize gay and bisexual men"
