![]() Greg Stanton, D-Phoenix, is among those pushing the FDA to remove restrictions and prohibitions preventing gay and bisexual men from donating blood while supplies nationwide still are limited due to the effects of the pandemic. In April 2020, that abstinence period was reduced to three months. The lifetime ban was changed in December 2015 to allow gay and bisexual men to donate if they had not had sex with other men for 12 months. “Obviously, we want to make sure that the blood donations are safe, but let’s not throw any group or community under the bus.”Īccording to the Human Rights Campaign, gay and bisexual men have higher chances of contracting bloodborne diseases, and at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, men who had sex with men were banned from the donor pool. “There’s nothing about being a gay person or a gay man in particular that makes my blood any more dangerous or less desirable when it comes to somebody who many need it to save their life,” said Martin, now 29. When Johnny Martin, a voting rights organizer with the Arizona Faith Network, was 17 and old enough to donate blood, he knew he was gay and thought he would never be able to donate blood because of his sexuality.
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