Canadian Blood Services Could Repeal Ban on Gay Donors

An official with the federal blood donor agencies says rules that ban men who have had sex with men from giving blood are obsolete.

Activists have long argued that the ban on gay men is discriminatory, but Canadian Blood Services has always stuck to the argument that any man who had sex with another man after 1977, even once, poses a risk to the blood donation system. HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are significantly more prevalent in Canadian homosexual and bisexual men. Last year a Supreme Court decision upheld the controversial policy, but Wednesday the director of public relations for Canadian Blood Services Lorna Tessier said the rules were “not sustainable.” The agency is reportedly researching the issue and plans to ask Health Canada to shorten the period for which gay men must be celibate before giving blood.