It's 2013, gay men still can't give blood, and Sen.
Elizabeth Warren is pushing for a long overdue change. Warren, responding to a constituent who was not allowed to give blood after the Boston Marathon bombings, sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius calling on HHS to pick up the pace.
The letter, signed by dozens of members of both the Senate and the House, including Republican Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, notes that:
... the American Medical Association (AMA) recently adopted a resolution opposing the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) current lifetime ban on MSM blood donation in favor of a policy based on individual risk-factors other than sexual orientation. We feel that AMA's recent vote in opposition to the current policy provides even greater impetus for HHS to move swiftly with its research and revision of the current ban.
In a press release, Warren's office explained
what spurred her to send the letter:
"For me, this has been a basic issue of fairness and of science - blood donation policies should be grounded in science, not ugly and inaccurate stereotypes," Senator Warren said. "When a Massachusetts man told me he wanted to donate blood during the bombings but couldn't because of his sexual orientation, I dug deeper into this discriminatory ban and I didn't like what I found. Current policies are contrary to science. They promote discrimination and don't make the system any safer. It's long past time for HHS to make blood donation policies fairer and more effective."
It's absurd that policies dating back to ill-informed panic over HIV remain in place. Good for Warren—and dozens of other members of Congress—for urging HHS to catch up with science and end discrimination.
