I work at a leading medical device company that actually designed and manufactures the blood screening tests used across the country. I know if the ban (and especially the stigma) was lifted I would absolutely start giving again along with many other LGBT people. I remember as a teenager having blood drawn and the person saying, “Your blood type can help many people.” As a young kid, that made it so easy for me to want to continue to come back and donate. Now, coming up on 17 years with the same partner (husband since 2008), I’m still unable to give blood. Through high school to my early twenties I know I’d given gallons. Prior to coming out as a gay man and entering into a long term relationship, I gave blood regularly. We asked our readers for their thoughts and if the ban had ever affected them. Some members of the LGBTQ community say that the ban also reflects stigma regarding gay men and HIV. Blood banks can screen for HIV with an accuracy rate of 99.99%, according to the FDA. “I don’t believe it’s discriminatory, because I believe it’s not a policy that’s based on a sexual orientation it’s based on keeping the blood supply safe,” he said.īut critics of the deferral note that testing technology has improved since the 1980s when the ban was first created. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told the PBS NewsHour that the purpose of the ban was not to discriminate. Proponents of the deferral say that it lowers the risk of HIV transmission through the blood supply, pointing to higher-than-average rates of HIV infection among gay and bisexual men. Last year, that ban was changed to a one-year deferral, meaning that only men who have not had sex with another man in the past year can donate. As HIV became a public health issue, the FDA instituted a ban on donating blood for men who have had sex with another man since 1977. Food and Drug Administration that bans blood donations from men who have had sex with men in the past year. In July, the public received the chance to weigh in on a long-debated topic: a policy by the U.S.