FDA Blood Donation Ban for Gay and Bisexual Men Cancelled

We are pleased to see the FDA has issued the final guidance and we support this initial policy change that will allow gay and bisexual men to donate for the first time in 32 years, declares National Gay Blood Drive organization.

However, the revised policy is still discriminatory. While 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.

So today we begin the final push to eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation from the blood donation process altogether. We strongly encourage the FDA to move toward a deferral based upon individual risk assessment. We will commence organizing the National Gay Blood Drive immediately in conjunction with the implementation of the revised MSM blood donor policy.