Peter Tatchell

The National Blood Service is to review its lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood.

The review will be a public consultation to be held in London tomorrow (Tuesday 27). A protest against the ban will take place outside the consultation's venue at 1pm.

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said:
"This review of the blanket, lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood is long overdue. It has been ordered by the National Blood Service in response to criticisms and protests by a range of organisations, including the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) human rights group OutRage!, the National AIDS Trust and the National Union of Students.

"The review and public consultation coincide with the National Blood Service issuing an urgent appeal for donors, ahead of the winter flu season. Some of the potential shortfall in the blood supply could be met if the total ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood was lifted.

"The lifetime ban is backed by the government, which claims to oppose homophobic discrimination. It is based on the stererotyped, irrational, bigoted and unscientific assumption that any man who has had oral or anal sex with another man - even just once 40 years ago with a condom - is high risk for HIV. This is nonsense.

"The truth is that most gay and bisexual men do not have HIV and will never have HIV. Their blood is safe.

"Among those prohibited from donating blood are: gay couples in life-long monogamous relationships, celibate gay and bisexual men, heterosexual men who experimented once with their schoolmates, and males who last had gay sex in the 1960s - over a decade before the HIV pandemic began.  Even if men from these groups test HIV-negative, they are banned for life from donating blood. This policy is madness.

"The priority must be to protect the blood supply from infection with HIV. But this can be achieved without a universal ban on all gay and bisexual men.

"Other countries have ditched their lifetime exclusion, including New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Japan and Australia. They allow some gay and bisexual men to donate blood, in certain cirumstances.

"Since Spain and Italy ended their gay ban, the number of HIV infections from contaminated blood donations has fallen.

"In the UK, the Anthony Nolan Trust has lifted its automatic ban on all bone marrow donations from gay and bisexual men.

"The National Blood Service should end the lifetime ban. The only men who should be excluded are those who have had oral or anal sex with a man without a condom in the last six months. All other gay and bisexual men should be accepted as donors, providing their blood tests HIV-negative. If the blood service wanted to be ultra cautious, it could do two different HIV tests on these donors: an antibody test and an antigen test. This would absolutely guarantee that the donated blood posed no risk to its recipients. This change of policy would not endanger the blood supply. The blood donated would be safe."

The review is being held at 2pm in the Royal Horticultural Halls Conference Centre, Greycoat Street, London SW1 on Tuesday October 27. The protest will start an hour earlier at 1pm.

For more information about Peter Tatchell view:
www.petertatchell.net