San Francisco Presses Feds to End Ban on Gay Male Blood Donations (+video)

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In 1983, as the AIDS epidemic was raging, gays and bisexual men were banned from donating blood by the FDA. Now San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener has introduced a resolution to end the ban, and the city board is expected to approve it.

Weiner told KTVU in San Francisco that the city has to make a statement to the FDA that times and technology are changing. He charged, “It’s discriminatory, it has no basis in public health. All donated blood is heavily tested, and it’s depriving our country of a lot of blood that could be donated to help save peoples’ lives.”

A lesbian who has been donating blood for thirty years snapped to KTVU, “I think it’s time for the government to take its regulatory self and shove it, to tell you the truth. If the blood is clean, we need it. Use it.”

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