Democratic lawmakers are calling for an end to the Food and Drug Administration’s legal restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, in light of Sunday’s mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando.
All FDA guidelines remain in effect for blood donation. There are false reports circulating that FDA rules were being lifted. Not true.
— OneBlood (@my1blood) June 12, 2016
The initial 1985 policy issued a lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men becoming blood donors, namely due to the AIDS epidemic of that time. Last year, the FDA revised its standards with a 12-month window from the time a man had sex with other men.
Current FDA donor recommendations state:
Defer for 12 months from the most recent contact a man who has had sex with another man during the past 12 months. Defer for 12 months from the most recent contact a female who has had sex during the past 12 months with a man who has had sex with another man in the past 12 months.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, lawmakers criticized the FDA, one even saying the restrictions were “rooted in bigoted policies.”
“It’s ridiculous that a straight person can have unprotected sex with multiple partners and donate, but a monogamous gay or bisexual man cannot,” said Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), co-chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus, told HuffPost.
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) initiated a letter Monday evening among lawmakers in Congress to “promote a less discriminatory system.” The letter will be delivered to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf.
Quigley, Rep. Barbara Lee and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin all teamed up on Monday issuing a joint statement on the matter.
“We find it unacceptable that gay and bisexual men are banned from donating desperately needed blood in response to this tragedy. Blood donations are needed now more than ever, yet gay and bisexual men remain unable to donate blood due to an outdated and discriminatory FDA rule,” the group said in a statement. “For years, we have worked through both authorizing and appropriations committees to overturn the FDA’s donor referral policy for men who have sex with men. We’ve made progress; this past year, the FDA reversed a lifetime ban to a 12-month deferral policy. But this revision does not go far enough in ending an outdated policy that is medically and scientifically unwarranted and that perpetuates inaccurate stereotypes. Tragedies like the one we witnessed in the early morning hours on Sunday show how crucial it is for FDA to develop better blood donor policies that are based on science and on individual risk factors; that don’t unfairly single out one group of individuals; and that allow all healthy Americans to donate.”
If you want to get involved in the efforts to support the Orlando crisis, check out this list.
