Why so many gay and bisexual men n’t donate blood the U.S. | PBS News Weekend

Contents:

• LETTG GAY MEN DONATE BLOOD COULD HELP SOLVE A MAJOR HEALTH CRISIS
• BANNED FOR LIFE: WHY GAY MEN STILL N'T DONATE BLOOD
• FDA LOOSENS BLOOD DONATN RTRICTNS THAT AFFECT GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• WHY SO MANY GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN N’T DONATE BLOOD THE U.S.
• MORE GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN WILL NOW BE ABLE TO DONATE BLOOD UNR FALIZED FDA L
• FDA DROPS BLOOD DONATN RTRICTNS SPECIFIC TO GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• GAY MEN STILL FACE HURDL TO DONATE BLOOD AMID NATNAL SHORTAGE
• WHY THE FDA IS EASG LIMS ON GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN GIVG BLOOD
• DPE BLOOD SUPPLI CRILLY LOW, SOME GAY MEN STILL CANNOT DONATE PLASMA
• GAY, BISEXUAL MEN UTAH N GIVE BLOOD UNR PANY’S LOOSENED RTRICTNS
• OFFICIALS QUTN WHY FDA CONTU TO RTRICT GAY BLOOD DONORS
• FDA LOOSENS RTRICTNS ON GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN, ENURAG BLOOD DONATNS AMID RONAVIS CRISIS
• DOCTORS SAY 'S TIME TO END BAN ON BLOOD DONATNS OM GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• BLOOD DONATN BY GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• FDA'S REVISED BLOOD DONATN GUIDANCE FOR GAY MEN STILL COURTS CONTROVERSY

LETTG GAY MEN DONATE BLOOD COULD HELP SOLVE A MAJOR HEALTH CRISIS

But there is one easily implementable solutn to the natnal blood-supply shortage that’s been available for years and uld be a lifele: allowg gay and bisexual men to donate eely. S., gay and bisexual men (often referred to as MSM, or “men who have sex wh men”) are not allowed to give blood if they’ve had sex wh another man the past three months. “It is my opn that we ntue to have a real problem wh laws and regulatns based on fear rather than science, ” she ntuatn of a MSM-specific barrier to givg is not only limg the blood supply, ’s unnecsary and “rooted homophobia, ” explas Perry N.

BANNED FOR LIFE: WHY GAY MEN STILL N'T DONATE BLOOD

”In 2015, theFDA loosened s rtrictn, permtg gay and bisexual men to donate blood as long as they hadn’t had sex wh another man the past year.

FDA LOOSENS BLOOD DONATN RTRICTNS THAT AFFECT GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

For example, if you’re a gay man who wears ndoms durg sex, you lim your risk of ntractg HIV. Same go for gay men who are married or a long-term monogamo relatnship.

Conducted tanm wh the natn’s largt blood centers—the Amerin Red Cross, Valant, and OneBlood—the rearch effort will survey 2, 000 gay and bisexual men across the untry between the ag of 18 and 30 who have had sex wh at least one man the past three months. ”The policy change uld have a signifint posive effect on the mental health of gay and bisexual men, too. It also puts gay and bisexual men at higher risk for acquirg HIV over time.

WHY SO MANY GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN N’T DONATE BLOOD THE U.S.

“Social and stctural factors that e gay men to feel othered e them to engage risky sexual behavr, ” Halkis says.

So a ban like this isn’t jt harmful to the Amerin public; “’s credibly harmful to the gay muny, both emotnally and physilly. The first step is to sign GLAAD’s petn at You then n—and should—te those around you, “sce many people, cludg gay and bi men, don’t know that this ban exists, ” adds Lasky.

Let them know you don’t support discrimatory practic that ban gay and bisexual men om dog their civic duty. "Chip Somovilla / Getty ImagLike lns of other gay men, Dassey ed to give blood a few tim a year whout a send thought.

MORE GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN WILL NOW BE ABLE TO DONATE BLOOD UNR FALIZED FDA L

"If you are a gay man, and you answer that qutn tthfully, the rult is a lifetime ban.

" The FDA classifi all gay men the hight-risk blood-donor tegory -- the same tegory as IV dg ers and people who've spent more than five years sce 1980 a untry that has mad w disease.

FDA DROPS BLOOD DONATN RTRICTNS SPECIFIC TO GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

Even wh a clean bill of health, a gay man is nsired more of a threat to the blood supply than a straight man who was treated for chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrhea, venereal warts, and genal herp wh the past year. The FDA, other words, nsirs the sort of man who pays women for sex to be healthier -- and his blood ls of a risk to you -- than a man who last had sex wh another man 30 years 's bee gay men, the FDA argu, are at "creased risk of certa transfn transmissible fectns" like AIDS and hepatis B.

And that argument isn't necsarily whout mer: Gay men make up roughly half of the patients livg wh HIV the Uned Stat, spe acuntg for jt four percent of the populatn. Prsured to take actn, the FDA did the only thg possible and banned the group of people most likely to spread the vis: sexually active gay men. In addn to the Uned Stat, several other untri still have lifetime bans agast gay blood donors place, cludg France, Germany, Swzerland, Norway, and Denmark.

More recently, however, other parts of the world have started to rensir the policy's and Spa, for example, no longer specifilly exclu gay men.

GAY MEN STILL FACE HURDL TO DONATE BLOOD AMID NATNAL SHORTAGE

They are the cx of every argument for overturng the ban on gay donors worldwi. At the time, all hospals bed need about 80, 000 uns of blood daily, but the Red Cross uld liver only 36, banks have managed to close the gap sce then, but they still ntue to advote on behalf of gay donors. "The FDA's lifetime blood donor ferral affectg gay men vlat our nondiscrimatn policy, " Kassg wrote a memo to the mp that momentum has only ntued to build.

As I like to tell people now, the H HIV stands for 'Human' -- not 'Homosexual'.

"Jt bee you're gay don't make you higher risk than someone who isn't, " Zgman says.

WHY THE FDA IS EASG LIMS ON GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN GIVG BLOOD

"I started givg blood llege, and I didn't e out as a gay man until I was 39, " says Bill S., a donor om Philalphia who spoke to Men's Health anonymoly.

"More importantly, as an overwhelmg body of evince now suggts, n save liv whout endangerg Emmy Derisbn, the woman who spired the Banned4Life movement, put , "I'll never ask, 'Is that gay blood? Origally, gay and bisexual men were pletely prohibed om donatg blood.

" In craftg the new guidance, the FDA has been lookg to the rults of a study of about 1, 600 gay and bisexual men to velop screeng qutns that n intify potential donors who are most likely to be fected wh HIV. “This mov closer to FDA policy based on science, not stigma, bee HIV is not a ‘gay disease’. There is nothg herent to sex, genr inty, or sexual orientatn that mak people more likely to ntract HIV—or any other illns, ” Jason Cianctto, Gay Men’s Health Crisis’s vice print of munitns and policy, said a statement.

DPE BLOOD SUPPLI CRILLY LOW, SOME GAY MEN STILL CANNOT DONATE PLASMA

Gay and bisexual men will soon be able to donate blood whout havg to absta om sex for months after s of beg banned om dog so. Is movg to ease rtrictns on blood donatns om gay and bisexual men and other groups that tradnally face higher risks of HIV. The Food and Dg Admistratn (FDA) said Thursday had officially elimated rtrictns that had prevly prohibed many blood donatns by gay and bisexual men — a longstandg policy that crics say is discrimatory.

GAY, BISEXUAL MEN UTAH N GIVE BLOOD UNR PANY’S LOOSENED RTRICTNS

Wh the updated guil, most gay and bisexual men who are a monogamo relatnship wh a man will no longer have to rea om sex orr to donate blood. At first, gay and bisexual men were pletely prohibed om donatg blood.

Print and CEO of GLAAD Sarah Kate Ellis echoed that approval a statement, sayg "The FDA's cisn to follow science and issue new remendatns for all Amerins, regardls of sexual orientatn, who selflsly donate blood to help save liv, signals the begng of the end of a dark and discrimatory past rooted fear and homophobia, " However, Ellis said while the new guidance is a step the right directn, there is still a barrier for LGBTQ+ people who are on PrEP, an FDA-approved dg proven to prevent the transmissn of HIV, who may want to donate blood. The Food and Dg Admistratn has dropped all rtrictns specific to gay and bisexual men donatg blood, a move long anticipated by public health experts and gay rights new guidance, first proposed January and falized Thursday, will not rtrict donatns based on someone's sexual orientatn or genr inty, and stead move towards an "dividual risk-based" approach to rce the risk of accintal HIV fectn through the blood donatn FDA origally banned donatns om gay and bisexual men the midst of the 1980s HIV/AIDS crisis.

For example, the HIV epimic has spread far beyond gay and bisexual men, wh women acuntg for roughly 1 5 new HIV diagnos the Uned Stat, acrdg to the most recent CDC data available. Peter Ch-Hong, an fect disease specialist at the Universy of California, San 2015, the FDA relaxed an outright ban on donatns om gay and bisexual men, but the 2015 guidance asked men to absta om sex for at least one year before Thursday's falized guidance, every prospective donor will be asked about their sexual history wh the past three months -- regardls of their sexual orientatn.

OFFICIALS QUTN WHY FDA CONTU TO RTRICT GAY BLOOD DONORS

""The FDA's cisn to follow science and issue new remendatns for all Amerins, regardls of sexual orientatn, who selflsly donate blood to help save liv, signals the begng of the end of a dark and discrimatory past rooted fear and homophobia, " Sarah Kate Ellis, the print and CEO of GLAAD, said a statement, however, took issue wh one part of the updated remendatn, which urg ferral for anyone takg HIV meditns -- cludg people who are HIV negative who are takg meditns lled PrEP to prevent ferral perd uld ntue to erect barriers to LGBTQ blood donors, she said. S., the Red Cross, along wh One Blood, Valant and partner LGBTQ+ muny health centers, are participatg a pilot study fund by the FDA select ci that uld potentially lead to chang for blood donor eligibily creria for gay and bisexual men.

FDA LOOSENS RTRICTNS ON GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN, ENURAG BLOOD DONATNS AMID RONAVIS CRISIS

Dpe this urgent need for donatns, people who have sex wh gay or bisexual men are still facg rtrictns on their abily to give Food and Dg Admistratn bars people who have had sex wh gay or bisexual men om donatg blood for three months followg the most recent sexual ntact bee of fears of HIV the blood agency changed the ferral perd om 12 months to three months November 2020 as blood donatns fell and hospals faced cril shortag durg the first year of the COVID-19 advot, cludg the Human Rights Campaign, say the FDA is movg too slowly on removg the rtrictn, sayg that 's an outright ban on the abily of people, particularly gay and bisexual men, to donate blood. Rtrictns on blood donatns om gay and bisexual men, who are nsired to be at high risk for HIV or AIDS transmissn, date back to the and bisexual men unrgo dividual risk asssments stead of time-based bans untri around the world, recently cludg Greece and France, acrdg to ternatnal reports.

A person is tted durg the first gay men's blood drive, held at the Memorial Blood Center St. The event was held to prott feral l that effectively ban gay men om donatg Bispg/Star Tribune via Getty Imag, FILEValant told ABC News a new statement that rearchers are halfway toward s goal of enrollg 2, 000 participants across eight ci: Washgton D.

They enurage gay and bisexual men who are 18 to 39 years old to participate the FDA, a statement to ABC News, said that this study uld generate data that will help the agency terme if a donor's dividual risk asssment and qutnnaire would be jt as effective rcg the risk of HIV the blood supply as the time-based ferrals the FDA already has FDA also said do not have a specific timele for when the studi will be pleted but that is "mted to gatherg the scientific data that n support alternative donor ferral polici that mata a high level of blood safety.

DOCTORS SAY 'S TIME TO END BAN ON BLOOD DONATNS OM GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

Food and Dg Admistratn l at the time, gay and bisexual men were barred om donatg blood—a policy that had been effect sce the 1980s.

”For years, activists and scientists have been advotg for revised blood donatn l lked to HIV transmissn ncerns and on May 11 the FDA announced that is easg the 2015, the feral agency updated s policy to allow gay and bisexual men to donate blood, but only if they hadn’t had sex wh another man for at least a year. In the early 1980s, gay and bisexual men were one of the highly affected groups durg the HIV/AIDS epimic. But along wh the limatns, homophobia also fueled the bate on who uld or uldn’t donate the years, the lag time between exposure to the vis and tts tectg s prence the bloodstream cled.

Dpe the checks, the FDA, 2015, cid to allow blood donatn om only those gay and bisexual men who had abstaed om sex wh men for one year. Also, “not everyone, jt bee of their inty as a gay man or bisexual, is engagg sexual activy that pos a risk of HIV, ” he says.

BLOOD DONATN BY GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

The le, for stance, don’t exclu monogamo gay men, those who practice safe sex, or tt negative for even though the feral agency cut the no-sex-wh-another-man wdow to three months 2020—as the natn experienced a severe blood shortage crisis—’s still rtrictive, says Keh Sigel, an fect diseas specialist at the Ihn School of Medice at Mount Sai, New York Cy. In April 2020, more than 500 medil and health profsnals sent an open letter to the FDA statg that even the new prohibn perd did not go far enough reversg the unscientific 2021, the agency fund a study to terme if a qutnnaire uld be ed as an alternative to terme dividual risks of HIV among gay and bisexual men wantg to donate blood as opposed to a blanket time-based policy.

ADVANCE studyFor the so-lled ADVANCE study, nearly 2, 000 gay and bisexual men eight ci volunteered to donate blood sampl that were screened for HIV and answered qutns about their sexual activy. Back the 1980s, the FDA placed rtrictns on blood donatns by gay men.

FDA'S REVISED BLOOD DONATN GUIDANCE FOR GAY MEN STILL COURTS CONTROVERSY

When the ban was started, 1985, blood banks had limed abili to tt blood products, so they banned donatns om several groups who were found to have higher rat of HIV disease, cludg gay men. Has still mataed a fairly regrsive policy that a lot of people believe puts irratnal or homophobic rtrictns on who uld donate blood. In 2015, the ban was changed to one year, meang a gay man would have to absta om sexual activy for a full year orr to donate blood.