After years of protest, blood donation ban on gay and bisexual men eased by FDA

Bisexual and gay men, who are in monogamous relationships, won't be forced to abstain from sex any longer if they wish to donate blood as per the federal guidelines announced on Friday, bringing to an end a vestige of the AIDS crisis.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed the relaxation of restrictions after facing years of pressure from LGBT rights organisations, blood banks and the American Medical Association to abandon rules that some experts call homophobic, outdated and ineffective in ensuring a safe blood supply in the nation.

As per the new approach, the rules targeting men having sex with men is eliminated and the focus will instead be shifted to the sexual behaviours of people, regardless of which gender they belong to, and the effort will be to understand if the donor poses a high risk of contracting and transmitting HIV.

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The proposal is likely to be adopted by the FDA after a period of public comment. Similar changes have been introduced in other countries like the United Kingdom and Canada in recent years.

The gay men claim that for a decade they were treated like pariahs as they were not allowed to donate blood along with their family and friends in times of crisis.

The FDA rules' rigidity made some gay people feel that they are viewed as disease vectors and that they cannot be trusted, even if they take all steps to protect their health.

Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies chief medical officer Claudia Cohn said, “Keeping the blood supply safe is paramount, but it is also important to move forward so that we are not excluding a group of donors who could be perfectly safe."

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In the coronavirus pandemic's early months, when the nation faced a blood shortage, Cole Williams faced a tough situation. His family was willing to donate blood, however, Williams being a bisexual had to tell them that he was not eligible to donate blood as he had sex with a man recently.

“We shouldn’t have to fight this hard to do something as selfless as giving blood,” Williams, who is a nursing student and the founder of the advocacy group Pride and Plasma which advocated for changes to the FDA policy, said. “I could have as much unprotected sex with as many women as I wanted, and the FDA would have no problem with that," he added.

The newly eligible blood donors won't be able to donate blood by the end of this year or may early next year till the changes are not finalised by the FDA and are not implemented by the blood banks.

(With inputs from agencies)

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