Gay Men Can Soon Give Blood, But Shift In FDA Policy Still Favors The More Abstinent

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday it will drop its 31-year ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood, as the science of HIV detection and treatment advances. The ban dates from the first, terrifying years of the AIDS epidemic. But the lifting of restrictions is only partial and excludes men who have had sex with other men in the previous 12 months, effectively shutting out all but the most sexually abstinent blood donors.