This past week, the U.K. made a historic policy change to its prior complete MSM Blood Ban. Incorporating a new study based on “Fair Assessment of Individualized Risk” (FAIR), the new policy considers an individual’s own risk factors, instead of their sexuality, to determine their ability to donate blood.
According to the FAIR recommendations, men who have sex with men (MSM) are now able to donate blood if they have been monogamous for 3 months, or have abstained for that amount of time. This massive step forward for LGBTQ+ rights was in part hastened by the recent shortage of blood as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.
The shift puts the U.K. at the forefront of policy in this area, fighting homophobia that has deep roots in the aftermath of the AIDS epidemic.
In the U.S., the donation deferral period was recently changed from 12 to 3 months for MSM. Hopefully, this decision by the U.K. will encourage more inclusive policies here in the U.S. and around the world.
For more information, please check out this article by NBC: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/u-k-allow-sexually-active-gay-men-donate-blood-n1251095.