The change, which comes just in time for Pride Month, will enable even more people to donate blood, which is incredibly important considering the impact of the pandemic on supplies.
We want to see a blood donation system that allows the greatest number of people to donate safely and we will continue to work with Government to build on this progress and ensure that more people, including LGBT+ people, can donate blood safely in the future.”
He said: “We welcome today’s historic change, which will help ensure more gay and bi men can donate blood and represents an important step towards a donation selection policy entirely based on an individualised assessment of risk. The move to change the strict rules, which came about in the aftermath of the AIDS crisis, comes as a success to many campaigners, including Robbie de Santos, who is Director of Communications and External Affairs for LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall. Instead, anyone will be able to donate blood if they have been with the same sexual partner for longer than three months, or if they have not had anal sex with a new partner in the same period. Now, though, potential blood donors will not be asked whether they are a man who has had sex with another man. Before 2011, men who had sex with men were not allowed to give blood at all. Previously, men who had sex with men had to wait three months since their last sexual activity (even in a monogamous relationship) before donating, and before 2017 this was even more restrictive, with a twelve-month abstention period. The new criteria focuses on individual behaviours, lifting a. New rules which came in this morning in England, Scotland and Wales mean that eligibility is now based on individual behaviours, rather than grouping potential donors together to determine risk. Blood donation rules for gay and bisexual men are being relaxed across the UK, in what the government is calling a 'landmark change'. But this year, the day has even more significance, especially to many men who have sex with men, who have previously struggled to donate blood.
Today (14th June) is World Blood Donor Day, which aims to raise awareness of the importance of voluntary blood donation to healthcare systems across the world.