Add your name to HRC’s letter demanding the FDA to change its blood donation policy

Crises don’t discriminate. Our blood donation policies shouldn’t either.

Every day, we see COVID-19’s devastating impact unfolding before our eyes. As it spreads, we are also seeing a dire need for increased levels of blood donations — with need only growing.

Yet, as this crisis within a crisis grows, many men in the LGBTQ community remain prohibited from donating their blood by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Up until a few weeks ago, FDA policy stated that men who have sex with men (MSM) are forbidden from donating their blood unless they’ve been abstinent for 12 months. The updated deferral period is now 3 months.

While this is a step forward, the revised policy continues to perpetuate bias toward and discrimination against LGBTQ people over fact-based science — making it flawed like the one that proceeded it.

That’s why today HRC is continuing its call for a truly science-based and bias-free deferral policy — one based on information within the personal knowledge and control of the prospective donor and not on the sexual orientation or gender identity of the donor or their sexual partners. Add your name!

I, [NAME], join the Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David and HRC’s 3+ million members and supporters in reiterating the need for the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to change its blood donation policy for men who have sex with men (MSM). Shifting the deferral period from 12 months of abstinence to 3 months isn’t enough — we need a truly bias-free deferral policy.

Crises don’t discriminate. Our blood donation policies shouldn’t either.

 

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