Australia’s health ministers have agreed to bring forward a review of the rules that prevent men who have had sex with other men (MSM) from donating blood. Currently MSM are banned from donating blood. To be eligible gay men must abstain from sex for 12 months. The longstanding rules were developed when there was concern […]
The Victorian government will call on all Australian states to lift the ban on men who have sex with men from donating blood at today’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting. Under the current rules men are prohibited from donating blood if they’ve had sex with another man within the last 12 months. The ban […]
French authorities will end blanket bans on donating blood for gay and bisexual men. The bans, which are a relic of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, prevented any male who has sex with other men from ever donating blood in the country. The Netherlands recently took similar action, ending their discriminatory policy just […]
The Australian Greens are calling for a review of the long-standing deferral period which disallows gay men and men who have sex with men to give blood for 12 months after engaging in sexual activity. The party’s LGBTI spokesperson Senator Robert Simms says he has written to Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson calling for the […]
A Welsh poet has taken to pouring more than his heart and soul into his art, replacing ink with his own blood for a Parisian exhibition entitled ‘Words&Blood’. 24-year-old RJ Arkhipov began exploring his new found medium after a trip to donate blood resulted in a confronting conversation. “I remember feeling slightly ashamed in having […]
