“For example, a man who has had protected oral sex with another man once in the 3 months currently (is) barred from donating blood,” the Human Rights Campaign says. What the FDA’s guidance doesn’t take into account is men who are practicing safe sexual practices, or those who are in monogamous relationships, advocates say. The policy was revised in 2015 to a 12-month deferral period - meaning that in order to donate blood, MSMs needed to abide by a year-long abstinence span - and revised again in April 2020 to three months, citing the “urgent need for blood” at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1983, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) barred blood donations from all men who have had sex with men (MSM) after 1977 “to reduce the transmission of HIV by blood and blood products.”
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“Knowing that I wasn’t able to donate made me feel almost useless,” Graham said, adding: “It definitely made me feel like I wasn’t contributing in a meaningful way to something that’s super easy to do.” “I was ineligible because of the FDA’s ban on men who have sex with men donating blood and/or blood products,” the 26-year-old Navy veteran said. “It’s personal,” Graham told Spectrum News’ Samantha-Jo Roth, noting that his desire to donate dates back to high school and his service in the military - and when his younger cousin needed a bone marrow transplant a few years ago. It added that since the start of the pandemic, blood donations are down 10 percent and blood drives at schools - where blood is frequently collected - have dropped 62 percent.Jude Graham has always wanted to give blood. The organization said on Tuesday that it had less than a one-day supply of critical blood types, forcing doctors to make “difficult decisions’’ about who should receive life-saving blood transfusions. This most recent surge of Covid-19 cases has again left the Red Cross struggling to find donors. In April 2020 - amid the earlier pandemic-induced blood shortage and a slew of rebukes from lawmakers and advocates - the FDA decreased the donation deferral period for men who have sex with men from 12 months to three months of abstinence. It was not until 2015 that the ban was replaced with one-year abstinence requirement. In 1983, the federal government placed a lifetime ban on men who have sex with men from donating blood in an effort to keep HIV out of the blood supply. Restrictions on gay and bisexual men donating blood stem from the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. also pressed the FDA to reassess its current blood donation policy on men who have sex with men. Given advances in blood screening and safety technology, a time-based policy for gay and bisexual men is not scientifically sound, continues to effectively exclude an entire group of people, and does not meet the urgent demands of the moment,” the group wrote.įour Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee, in addition to two openly LGBTQ members of the House - Rep. “Any policy that continues to categorically single out the LGBTQ+ community is discriminatory and wrong. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., one of two openly LGBTQ senators - urged the FDA to scrap the restrictions.
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In a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and FDA acting Commissioner Dr. The only thing stopping them is bigotry and fear.” “They can change the policy - even temporarily - and they can do so today. “This is a crisis of the FDA’s own making,” said Jay Franzone, an LGBTQ advocate who remained abstinent for a year to donate blood in January 2017, abiding by former and more stringent FDA restrictions for gay and bisexual men.
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The chorus of criticism intensified this week after the Red Cross declared on Tuesday that the recent surge in Covid-19 cases had fueled the “worst blood shortage in more than a decade.”