Why Do FDA Ban ‘Gay’ Blood? - GMHC

Contents:

• BLOOD DONATN BY GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• GAY MEN STILL FACE HURDL TO DONATE BLOOD AMID NATNAL SHORTAGE
• FDA DROPS BLOOD DONATN RTRICTNS SPECIFIC TO GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• LETTG GAY MEN DONATE BLOOD COULD HELP SOLVE A MAJOR HEALTH CRISIS
• WHY THE FDA IS EASG LIMS ON GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN GIVG BLOOD
• OFFICIALS QUTN WHY FDA CONTU TO RTRICT GAY BLOOD DONORS
• ADVANCE STUDY ON DONATN ELIGIBILY REQUIREMENTS FOR GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• WHY DO FDA BAN ‘GAY’ BLOOD?
• DEBATE OVER GAY BLOOD DONATNS
• GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN ARE NOW ALLOWED TO DONATE BLOOD IN ENGLAND, STLAND AND WAL

BLOOD DONATN BY GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

Current Food and Dg Admistratn (FDA) policy allows for gay and bisexual men to donate blood 3 months after their most recent sexual ntact wh another man if they meet all other eligibily creria.

27, 2023, FDA issued a draft guidance that propos to elimate the tomatic 3-month ferral of gay and bisexual men based on the agency analysis of the current data on HIV transmissn. 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.

GAY MEN STILL FACE HURDL TO DONATE BLOOD AMID NATNAL SHORTAGE

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. For the first time four s, gay and bisexual men will be allowed to donate blood Utah.

FDA DROPS BLOOD DONATN RTRICTNS SPECIFIC TO GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

Durg a prs nference Wednday afternoon, ARUP Blood Servic ma the announcement, makg the first donor center the state to accept donatns om the gay muny. “The are excg chang to the guil that have historilly impacted gay and bisexual men for four s.”. 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.

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

""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. 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.

”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. For example, if you’re a gay man who wears ndoms durg sex, you lim your risk of ntractg HIV.

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

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.

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

OFFICIALS QUTN WHY FDA CONTU TO RTRICT GAY BLOOD DONORS

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.

ADVANCE STUDY ON DONATN ELIGIBILY REQUIREMENTS FOR GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

Let them know you don’t support discrimatory practic that ban gay and bisexual men om dog their civic duty. Can gay or bisexual men donate blood? Gay and bisexual men are eligible to donate three months after their last sexual enunter wh another man.

WHY DO FDA BAN ‘GAY’ BLOOD?

I’m a gay or bisexual man who hasn’t had sex wh another man more than three months.

DEBATE OVER GAY BLOOD DONATNS

I have heard that some other untri allow gay or bisexual men to donate blood based on different creria than the Uned Stat. 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.

GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN ARE NOW ALLOWED TO DONATE BLOOD IN ENGLAND, STLAND AND WAL

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. 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.