Showing posts with label gay blood ban. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gay blood ban. Show all posts

Monday, February 21, 2022

Gay blood ban: After HIV milestone, thousands demand changes in the U.S.

Researchers recently announced that HIV now infects more heterosexual people than gay or bisexual men in the U.K. The news rippled across the pond, where the U.S. is facing the worst blood shortage crisis in more than a decade. Now, more than 27,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org asking the FDA to end its discriminatory blood deferral policy.

“In a time where we are fighting a global pandemic and in desperate need of blood, gay and bi men are still unable to easily donate our perfectly healthy and usable blood.” Jason Johnson explains in the petition he created on Change.org. “Currently the FDA requires that men who have sex with men must abstain from sex for three months before donating blood.”

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

To Address National Blood Crisis, Human Rights Campaign Calls for End to Discriminatory Restrictions on Gay and Bisexual Men Donating Blood

In the wake of news that the American Red Cross had declared the first “national blood crisis” due to critically low blood supplies, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — on Tuesday once again called for federal authorities to remove unnecessary restrictions on blood donation by men who have sex with men.

“We are facing a national blood shortage. This is a crisis that can in part be addressed by modernizing the Food and Drug Administration’s discriminatory policy that bans men who have sex with men from donating blood ” said Joni Madison, Interim President of the Human Rights Campaign. “The current policy is outdated, does not reflect the state of the science, and continues to unfairly stigmatize one segment of society.”

HRC has strongly encouraged the FDA to revise the history questionnaire used to screen potential donors to one based on an individual risk assessment of sexual behaviors upon which all donors are evaluated equally, without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity.