Proposed blood donor policy still insufficient: gay activist

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Decades after the tainted blood scandal upended our blood donation system, gay men in Canada and the US still aren’t allowed to give blood.

The US Food and Drug Administration is recommending a change in the controversial policy – a move being watched very carefully here in Canada.

The ban came into effect back in the 1980s after the blood supply became contaminated with HIV.

The FDA is in favour of a partial lifting of that ban, to allow gay men to donate if they haven’t had sex in the last year.

Mark Robins, who is a contributing editor at Gay Vancouver and a former avid blood donor, believes the new policy would still be hypocritical.

“HIV/AIDs is not gay disease. We have to keep saying this. Why don’t they prevent heterosexuals who’ve had sex in the last year from donating blood?” he asks.

“It is frustrating that they have all these safeguards in place and yet they still deny us from being able to donate. It’s a double standard and that’s the biggest complaint that I have.”

Gays have been fighting the ban since it was imposed, so the FDA’s recommendations could be seen as a break-through.

But Robins says until the policy is officially changed, the gay community can’t claim any sort of victory.

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