When I reported last year about the urgent need for blood donors I received many comments from gay men that they would like to donate but were unable to.

Now the complete ban is being lifted. Until now, any man who had ever had sex with another man was barred for life from donation.

From 7 November the ban is being lifted in England, Scotland and Wales. But men who want to donate must not have had sex with another man in the past 12 months.

This deferral period has been left in place because there is a "window period" after infection with blood-borne viruses where they are not detectable.

This window period is far less than 12 months.

The report from the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) says that for HIV it varies from nine to 15 days, depending on the type of test. For hepatitis B, which causes liver disease, it is 66 days.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14844413

I'm happy about this. There is very little discriminatory legaslation in the UK (And most of it is against men in general) so I'm glad there's even less.

I still cant donate cuz i hate needles

I like the feeling of needles going into my skin.... not many at the same time, only one at a time. LOL.
Something about it gives me rush for pain...

I don't do heroin... .... I'm also not emo

Another great step

I hope this is a sign of things to come in the US. It's so discouraging that I can't donate blood.

I feel bad that I'm allowed to, but will never do it, ever in my life

I was a part of a campaign last year to get this law changed, so it's such a joy seeing it paid off

The response from the general public (non homosexual) was always overwhelmingly positive.

That pun was not intended btw.

Oh pshh... don't ever feel bad! It's a legitimate fear that some people have!

As long as you're helping people in some way, that's all that's important.

I used "positive" in my post too.

Mad respect to you for being being politically active! It's always great to see change that you helped orchestrate.

Maybe Canada will do the same. We get can get married, but still not allowed to donate blood.

Although I went once and lied. Oops.

I always tell myself that if I'm ever shot or stabbed resulting in a huge loss of blood, I'll bottle it up and they can have that. Other than that, I'll never be man enough to do it


Good on you

The full article should be posted



This is still UNFAIR, but at least they lifted the ban. Good for UK.

They lifted the ban last year here.

Awesome

Good. Just make sure the blood/donor is properly screened. Here in our country, there is an increased number of blood bags infected with HIV that were transfused to other people.

12 months?

Pfft, makes ****ing sense.

I'm sick and ****ing tired of the outdated views of the gay community as being some hotbed of HIV. So many of us practice safe sex (except for Jonny), and we all get STI tests yearly. Or at least we all should be.

I will not give up until I'm allowed to give blood under the same conditions that a straight man can.

Don't they get those blood tested anyways? It's actually be a good way to identify whether someone is at risk or not.

C'mon now uk.