France to Lift Ban on Gay Men Donating Blood

Next year, France will lift a long-running ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men.

“Giving blood is an act of generosity, of civic responsibility, and sexual orientation can not be a condition”, Touraine told gay rights groups in Paris. “While respecting patient safety, today we are lifting a taboo”, Touraine said. Men who’ve had sexual encounters with a single male partner over the last four months will be able to make partial donations that are limited to blood plasma.

“This development does not end the stigmatization of gay and bisexual men and thus maintains homophobia and biphobia”.

“Once again, the focus is on a specific population group rather than on high-risk behaviour – in essence, a stigmatisation of homosexuals”, he said.

Much of the contaminated blood was exported, leading to the infection and deaths of hundreds more.

Although several civil servants and the head of the transfusion service were fined and jailed, the issue continues to remain sensitive in France. The health minister was convicted but not given a punishment.

Promoting equal access to blood donations for homosexual men, whose risk of being infected with HIV is estimated to be 200 times greater than for heterosexuals, is a political demand that shouldn’t ignore public health considerations, he argued, warning of a possible boomerang effect.

Now Australia has a similar 12-month waiting period for blood donations by gay men.

Now gay men can not donate blood in the U.S., despite mass protest to the discriminatory policy.

On its website, the US Food and Drug Administration says men who have sex with men are “at increased risk for HIV”.

As it is, about a dozen donors per year test positive for the AIDS-causing virus in France.

“The plasma supply chain will allow the freezing of blood donations, so that donors can be tested again, once the window has passed for HIV antibodies to appear”, she said.

Health Minister Marisol Touraine said beginning in the spring of 2016, no blood donors can be refused based on their sexual orientation.