FDA Recommends Allowing Gay Men To Donate Blood

According to a press release from the FDA, the FDA will recommend ending a discriminatory and decades-old ban on donations of blood from men who have sex with men. The ban, currently in place, prohibits and man who has ever had sex with another man from donating blood.

The new FDA guidance (still discriminatory but a step in the right direction) will be that men who have been not had sex with another man for at least a year may donate blood.

"Over the past several years, in collaboration with other government agencies, the FDA has carefully examined and considered the available scientific evidence relevant to its blood donor deferral policy for men who have sex with men, including the results of several recently completed scientific studies and recent epidemiologic data," the FDA said in a press release.

"Following this review, and taking into account the recommendations of advisory committees to the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FDA, the agency will take the necessary steps to recommend a change to the blood donor deferral period for men who have sex with men from indefinite deferral to one year since the last sexual contact."

The ban was originally put in place during the height of the AIDS hysteria in the 1980s. All blood is currently tested before used for any medical procedure or transfusion.