Some good news: for a few years now I’ve been working to get the FDA to drop a discriminatory ban against gay & bisexual men from donating blood. 🩸 Today we won! 🥳 FDA just announced new blood donation guidelines & dropped the ban! Shout out Reps. Schiff, Pappas, & B Lee who we worked w/ on this - ThreadSky

aoc.bsky.social • 659 days ago

Some good news: for a few years now I’ve been working to get the FDA to drop a discriminatory ban against gay & bisexual men from donating blood. 🩸

Today we won! 🥳
FDA just announced new blood donation guidelines & dropped the ban!

Shout out Reps. Schiff, Pappas, & B Lee who we worked w/ on this

Comments

shirleman.bsky.social•659 days ago

Thanks for the work you do. Still leaving the US because it's broken but hopefully we can get it into a non awful state. My taxes will be sky high in the Netherlands but there isn't an insane party blocking people's ability to live like the GOP does. I think the brain drain is just starting

atonal440.bsky.social•659 days ago

I thought this would never change, it was so stubborn. Good job!

slappysquirrel2000.bsky.social•93 days ago

This is awesome and will save countless lives!

josh-ag.bsky.social•659 days ago

"it's not a ban per se, it's just that you can't be on prep! Or had anal sex with a new partner in the last 3 months."

bootstrap.bsky.social•659 days ago

Thank you!!! This means a lot to some of us!

jasonlemon.bsky.social•657 days ago

Thank you 😊

eskimo.bsky.social•659 days ago

I mean, the restrictions just apply to everyone now, not sure I'd consider this the big win you're making it out to be. Gay men are 2% of the population yet are almost 70% of the HIV cases. Feelings shouldn't be taken into consideration when you're talking about regulation involved in medical care.

sarahday.org•659 days ago

This rules! People who have been partners with gay and bisexual men were also ineligible to donate blood under this policy. Thanks for making it okay for me to give blood! :)

mistyksnow.bsky.social•659 days ago

Thanks!

bdb.bsky.social•659 days ago

Any plan to allow residents who happened to live in Ireland or the UK during mad cow donate ?

adampknave.com•659 days ago

Thank you!

americanantifa.org•659 days ago

While this is a big milestone, polyamory is not dangerous if you practice safe sex. I hope they change their policies so it doesnt prevent polyamorous folks who practice safe sex from donating blood.

lisastone.bsky.social•658 days ago

🦾❤️💯

bdaniel.bsky.social•659 days ago

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nataliec.bsky.social•659 days ago

about time! 🎉🙌🏻

kobestarr.bsky.social•658 days ago

Congratulations AOC!

caseynewton.bsky.social•659 days ago

thank you!!

samifou.ad•659 days ago

thank you 👏🏾

thae2541.bsky.social•658 days ago

Now I can finally donate without having to lie!

jmh.xyz•659 days ago

THANK YOU

thewriteplace.rocks•659 days ago

Now if we could drop the ban on people who have lived in Britain, that would be nice too.

keely.nyc•659 days ago

you’re doing good work, AOC

violaine.bsky.social•659 days ago

I’ve worked as a blood donor center lead tech in my professional career. Thank you so much for advocating for prospective donors!! This is HUGE.

fabbade.bsky.social•659 days ago

I would like this evolution of the law to spread throughout the world

williesha.bsky.social•659 days ago

Finally! It's almost as if there are blood tests to perform and not a blanket ban because of your sexual orientation! I can't give easily so this is fantastic news.

ninjapleasedj.bsky.social•659 days ago

You rock

repressionnap.bsky.social•659 days ago

oh ho go nice trick FDA but you aren’t getting my blood

backstagerider.bsky.social•659 days ago

Thank you for your efforts here! 🤘🏼❤️🤘🏼

tamarherman.com•658 days ago

Finally!!

beren.haus•659 days ago

This is awesome, well done!

amigarob.bsky.social•659 days ago

The three month rule was a good rule that ruled out ambiguity, was less intrusive and was more clinically sound. The miss-mash approach of interregation and no 'new partners' does not cover partners of partners. 1 in 7 on the scene in London, UK are infected. We should not have changed it in the UK.

amigarob.bsky.social•659 days ago

It is unwise to assume that policies that exclude men who have sex with men were or are discriminatory. Thousands of people across the world have been infected with blood products because of America's cavalier attitude to healthcare and health profiteering. There are scientific reasons to be wary.

chimeracoder.bsky.social•659 days ago

As a gay man who has been affected by this ban, I'm actually quite disappointed to see this presented as "ending the ban". The actual rules change very little in practice for gay men, and by dropping reference to gender, they now also apply to trans women and nonbinary people too.

chimeracoder.bsky.social•659 days ago

From 2015 onwards, trans women and nonbinary people could generally donate blood because the rules were interpreted to refer to self-identified gender, which meant trans women were treated the same as cis women, etc.

marf.bsky.social•659 days ago

What changes would you like to see to the new rules?

(Don’t know a ton about blood donation nuances, and curious about your thoughts!)

cognoscente.bsky.social•659 days ago

HOLY SHIT THATS INCREDIBLE WORK

cooperstreaming.bsky.social•659 days ago

SO long overdue. Thank you for your work on this.

physicssux.bsky.social•659 days ago

woohoo!

ruffhouse.bsky.social•659 days ago

This is great news to me. I have o negative blood but I have been denied from giving blood because I'm gay. Although I'm practically a virgin 50-year-old man, it's determined that my blood is somehow too suspect. But if anybody needs some I'm full of it haha

amigarob.bsky.social•659 days ago

You will not have been banned if you don't have sex with men.

brentley.bsky.social•659 days ago

this is awesome and long overdue. Should have been lifted once we got a handle on the aids crisis.

banditelli.org•659 days ago

When we fight, we win 🔥

joshdutcher.com•659 days ago

Oh this is a fantastic victory. I'll always cheer when ridiculous irrational homophobia gets legislated away. Congrats and thank you.

nilikm.bsky.social•653 days ago

Amazing.

caw.bsky.social•659 days ago

I'm pleasantly surprised at how reasonable the new requirements are. Even the PrEP prohibition, while unfortunate, is rooted in science, not a behavioral assumption. Well done 🎉

chimeracoder.bsky.social•659 days ago

Reading the actual rules, it actually really isn't rooted in science. The text is badly worded, lumping HAART/PrEP/PEP together, and the implied claim that a person taking PrEP is more likely to be HIV+ (and undetected by a test) is contradicted by the clinical literature

amigarob.bsky.social•659 days ago

There is a difference between donating a volume of blood product and engaging in risky behavior. You can not judge the effectiveness of transmission blood products by risky behaviour. You can also not expect the recipient of blood products to be on PrEP themselves.

caw.bsky.social•659 days ago

Taking this at their word, seems the FDA is claiming that someone with a clinically undetectable viral load can still transmit HIV via a blood transfusion, and this is more likely to be the case with someone taking antivirals than someone who is not. Is that an inaccurate take?

caw.bsky.social•659 days ago

I can see the claim about transfusion transmission being specious; that's not anything I've heard of before.

chimeracoder.bsky.social•659 days ago

I'm referring to the last sentence. Someone who is on PrEP has astronomically low chances of having HIV, because PrEP failures are so rare and because they are tested so much more frequently than the general population.

chimeracoder.bsky.social•659 days ago

The chance that someone on PrEP has HIV is very small, and the chance that they have HIV *AND* are in the infectious window *AND* the HIV is not detectable on a blood test is almost astronomically small.

dpnation.bsky.social•658 days ago

It is completely wild to me that it’s 2023 and this is just happening now

motivez.bsky.social•659 days ago

Congrats! It’s long since time this was rescinded. Not being able to take friends with me to donate blood/platelets over the years because of their sexuality has been ridiculous.

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