The Food and Drug Administration has eased restrictions on who is allowed to donate blood.
Previously, men who had sex with another man were banned from donating blood. Regulations have eased allowing men to donate blood if they have not had sex with another man for at least a year.
“As far as donating means, what this means is that more people who had previously been determined as to never be able to donate blood, many of those people will be able to donate blood now,“ said Sue Thew with United Blood Services Arizona.
Thew said a common misconception is that gay men are barred from giving blood. She explained that sexual behavior rather than sexual orientation has been cause for deferral. There has been criticism of the new regulation. In a press release, the national organization Gay Men’s Health Crisis said policies should be based on “science and not stigma.”
The restriction has been in place about three decades, since the height of the AIDS epidemic.