Gay Rights Group Hopes to Change Rules for Giving Blood, FDA States Gay Men Can't Donate (Video)

A gay rights activists groups is pushing to change the rules for donating blood.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, rules for giving blood currently prevent men who have sex with other men from giving blood since the beginning of 1977, as the immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) had just been diagnosed, stating that gay men "are not eligible to donate blood. Deferral of MSM from donation of blood and tissues is based on well-documented observations of a much higher prevalence (current infection) and incidence (newly acquired infection) of these transmissible agents among some MSM than in the non-MSM general population. Additionally, there is a theoretical concern that persons at increased risk for known sexually transmitted diseases might also be at increased risk to acquire sexually and blood transmitted infections that may emerge in the future and for which no laboratory tests exist.

 Men with an MSM history (about 2 percent of adults) comprise about 50 percent of all HIV infected persons in the US and account for more than 50 percent of all new HIV infections. FDA defers other donors when they present similarly high risks for exposure to transfusion transmissible infections, whether through behavior (e.g., injecting drug users; commercial sex workers), medical conditions (e.g., history of hepatitis after age 11), or geographical exposures (e.g., people who have traveled to or resided in areas with high levels of malaria or risk for exposure to Mad Cow Disease.)"

The group Banned4Life, created by Blake Lynch and his partner, Brett Donnelly, is hoping to change these rules.

Lynch said, according to News 13, that when his friend, who receives frequent blood transfusions, needed help, he wanted to be able to give but unfortunately, couldn't.

"Although I'm healthy with perfectly good blood and they need it so bad, I was still turned away due to being a gay male," Lynch said.

Their goal is to change FDA's policy and promote more blood donations.

They said they believe it's both an issue of discrimination and an overall health issue.

"This is not just affecting gay men, but it's affecting anyone out there that needs blood," Donnelly said.

Want to find out more about Banned4Life? Check out this video, courtesy of YouTube.