Federal Government Expected To Move Toward Relaxing Ban On Blood Donation From Gay Men
The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to submit new guidelines this week that will relax the lifetime ban on blood donation by gay men, according to BuzzFeed.
The lifetime ban has been in place since the dawn of the AIDS crisis, but advocates claim the policy is misguided and out of date and favor a policy based on individual risk factors rather than broad life categories.
“I have long fought to end this discriminatory, lifetime ban on blood donations,” Senator Tammy Baldwin said. “I look forward to seeing the Administration’s plans to achieve this goal." Baldwin called the existing policy "medically and scientifically unwarranted."
The new guidelines are also expected to clarify rules about blood donations from transgender people.
In December, an FDA committee first proposed loosening the restriction to a one-year celibacy requirement, a change supported by the American Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks, and America’s Blood Centers.
While the revised guidelines would be an improvement, convincing gay and bisexual men to abstain from sex for 12 months so they can donate blood will be a tall order.
There's not enough cookie and juice in the world to get us to go along with that.
