Gay blood ban remains

A Health and Human Services committee voted on Friday to maintain the ban against blood donations from men who have sex with men. Under the regulation, any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 cannot donate blood. The ban was instated in 1985, during the height of the AIDS pandemic. The vote was 9-6. Representative Mike Quigley (D- Chicago), who led the effort to re-evaluate the blood ban, said of the decision, "By clinging to a 1980s view of the world, we are perpetuating a stereotype." A man who has sex with an HIV positive woman, or a woman who has sex with an HIV positive man is required to wait one year after this sexual encounter to donate blood. The regulation for men who have sex with men is a lifelong ban. It is estimated that if this ban were changed to a one year deferral, 89,000 additional pints of blood would be donated each year. The Red Cross currently collects over 15 million pints of blood annually. "This decision is outrageous, irresponsible and archaic," said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "We expect more out of this advisory committee and this administration than to uphold an unnecessarily discriminatory policy from another era.