Gay men allowed to donate blood
But there’s still a catch.
“While many gay and bisexual men will be eligible to donate their blood ... countless more will continue to be banned solely on the basis of their sexual orientation and without medical or scientific reasoning.”
National Gay Blood Drive
Gay and bisexual men in the United States are no longer barred from donating blood, under a policy change announced Monday by the Food and Drug Administration, but there’s a big catch: Men still cannot donate if they have had sex with other men in the previous 12 months.
While the new policy lifts a ban in place for more than 30 years, since the early days of the HIV and AIDS epidemic, it effectively stops sexually active gay men from donating. But the change puts the policy for gay and bisexual men in line with other potential donors at increased risk for HIV, such as recent transfusion recipients, FDA officials said.
“The FDA’s responsibility is to maintain a high level of blood product safety for people whose lives depend on it,” FDA acting commissioner Stephen Ostroff said in a statement. “We have taken great care to ensure this policy revision is backed by sound sci- ence and continues to protect our blood supply.”
The risk of getting HIV from a blood transfusion in the United States today is about 1 in 1.47 million, FDA said.
An advocacy group called National Gay Blood Drive said it supported the decision, but said a fairer policy would assess HIV risks from sexual behavior in a more individual way. That would mean asking detailed questions about anal and oral sex, rather than considering all male-tomale sexual contact equally risky, spokesman Jay Franzone said.
“The revised policy is still discriminatory,” the group said in a statement. “While many gay and bisexual men will be eligible to donate their blood and help save lives under this 12-month deferral, countless more will continue to be banned solely on the basis of their sexual orientation and without medical or scientific reasoning.”
The FDA considered recent studies and other data, as well as the experiences of other countries, in making its decision, the agency said. The United Kingdom and Australia are among other countries that require men to wait to donate blood if they have had sex with other men.
Anyone who has ever tested positive for HIV, exchanged sex for drugs or money, or injected illicit drugs is still barred from giving blood.