Gay Blood Donor Ban Retained By 9-6 Vote

The Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability of the Department of Health and Human Services voted 9-6 on Friday to retain the current policy (in place since 1983) of preventing any man who has had sex with a man since 1977 from donating blood for the rest of their life.

Earlier this year, Senator John Kerry and a group of lawmakers sent a letter urging the FDA reconsider its long-held policy. The Los Angeles Times encouraged (sorta) the change.

Reporting from The Advocate:

Addressing the committee on Thursday, Kerry said he was joined by the nation's largest blood-banking organizations in opposition to the current policy. The American Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks, and America’s Blood Centers have all blasted the policy as “scientifically and medically unwarranted.”

"This is a discussion with real social significance for gay men," Kerry said before the committee. "They are clearly the target of this policy, which was initiated in the early '80s, when little was known about HIV/AIDS, except that gay men seemed to be contracting it almost exclusively. Today, this lingering policy carries with it a social stigma for this population that is still engaged in battles for civil rights on a whole array of fronts."

In a unanimous vote the panel also called the policy "suboptimal," however, and recommended that distinctions be made between low- and high-risk potential gay donors in a report to the assistant secretary of HHS.

I suspect the question of who gets appointed to this committee in the future as well as possible federal legislation will be next steps. LGBT groups are NOT HAPPY.