Canadian Blood Services recommends end to outright ban on donations from gay men

In a move LGBTQ2S+ advocates say is long overdue, Canadian Blood Services submitted an application to Health Canada on Wednesday to end the blood ban.

In the new request to overhaul the policy, Canadian Blood Services is asking its regulator to approve a change to its blood and plasma donor eligibility criteria that would allow blood donation clinics to stop asking gay and bisexual men as well as some other folks in the LGBTQ2S+ community whether they’ve had sex with a man.

Instead, they want to ask all donors regardless of orientation if they’ve engaged in higher-risk sexual activities, ushering in a sexual behaviour-based screening model for all donors regardless of orientation.

“We aim to be an organization that is inclusive and welcoming to all potential donors with minimal restrictions… This would allow us to precisely and reliably identify those who may have a transfusion-transmissible infection, regardless of gender or sexual orientation,” reads an update on the donation agency’s website announcing the submission.

As the blood donation policy currently stands, Canadian Blood Services prohibits gay and bisexual men who have sex with men, as well as certain trans people who have sex with men from donating blood unless they have been abstinent for three months. Earlier this year a pilot project was approved for plasma donations at centres in Calgary, and London, Ont. provided donors have not had a new sexual partner or their partner has not had sex with another partner in the last three months.