FDA will ease ban on monogamous gay and bisexual men donating blood

Gay and bisexual men will soon no longer have to abstain from sex in order to donate blood in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday.

The move comes after widespread calls from members of Congress, the American Red Cross and LGBT organizations to drop the ban put in place during the 1980s AIDS epidemic.

Men who had sex with another man (MSM) in the past three months, or women who had sex with one of those men, are not allowed to donate blood under current rules. This is because those men were struck hardest by America’s AIDS outbreak decades ago.

These rules have widely been panned as homophobic by critics. The UK and Canada lifted similar bans in recent years. Calls to lift these rules increased last year when America was facing a critical shortage of blood.

The FDA is expected to propose the changes in the coming days, before finalizing them after a short period for public comment. 

Restrictions on MSM donating blood date as far back as 1983 in America. At the time, HIV and AIDS were new diseases that were running rampant among gay men, though the world did not have a strong understanding of the diseases. 

An increased stigma was placed on gay men during this time, and fears of HIV and AIDS entering the blood supply led to restrictions going into place.

The prevalence of HIV has dropped significantly over time, though, as people are more aware of the condition now, how to prevent it, and many in the developed world now have access to technology that helps prevent transmission of the virus.

Last year, a group of 22 US senators – including Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren – called for the rule to be lifted.

They described it as ‘discriminatory and wrong,’ they wrote in a letter to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which includes the FDA.

‘While no single solution can fully solve these challenges, the FDA has the ability to take a simple and science-based step to dramatically increase the donor base and help address this crisis,’ the letter reads.

‘… any policy that continues to categorically single out the LGBTQ+ community is discriminatory and wrong.’

Last year, a group of 22 Senators called for the FDA and HHS to lift restrictions on gay and bisexual men donating blood (file photo)

Currently, any MSM who has been active in the past three months is barred from donating blood. 

They are removed from candidacy from a mandatory screening people fill out before donation in America.

‘Given advances in blood screening and safety technology, a time-based policy for gay and bisexual men is not scientifically sound, continues to effectively exclude an entire group of people, and does not meet the urgent demands of the moment,’ the letter says.

An increased stigma was placed on gay men at the time, and fears of HIV and AIDS entering the blood supply led to restrictions going into place.

The prevalence of HIV has dropped significantly over time, though, as people are more aware of the condition now, how to prevent it, and many in the developed world now have access to technology that helps prevent transmission of the virus.

‘With increased uptake of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), which significantly reduces the likelihood that an HIV-negative individual will acquire HIV, many more gay and bisexual men are aware of their HIV status and are taking steps to eliminate their personal risk,’ the Senators’ letter reads.

‘Instead of the current categorical deferral guidelines, we must adopt evidence-based policies focused on assessment of an individual’s risk, not inaccurate and antiquated stereotypes.’

Per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 15,000 Americans died of HIV or Aids in 2019, a far drop from the peak of over 40,000 deaths in the late 1980s.

In 2015, the FDA and HHS revised rules to allow MSM to donate blood as long as it had been 12 months since their last sexual activity.