Pressure on federal government grows - allow blood donations for homosexuals?

For several weeks now, the pressure on the federal government has been increasing. More and more people are apparently of the opinion that the ban on blood donations for gay men is no longer appropriate. Now the discussion has reached a new level. Among others, Microsoft and IKEA have also got involved.

They and eleven other companies recently addressed the federal government in an open letter to advocate that - even in times of corona crisis - blood may be donated by gay or bisexual men.

Currently, gay/bisexual men are only allowed to donate blood if they have not had sex with other men for at least one year. The LBGTQ Scene feels discriminated against by the current legislation.

In some cases significant differences in international comparison

Given periods of time between blood donation and the last sexual intercourse of gay or bisexual men are not uncommon. Nevertheless, every country deals differently with the combination "gay" and "blood donation" around. While countries like Spain and Italy have LGBTQ Scene not treated differently from heterosexual people, a period of three months must be waited for in Canada, for example, and even five years in Taiwan.

However, due to the current Corona situation, the need for blood donations could also change and increase accordingly. The likelihood that new legislation will be passed in this regard come is currently high.

FDP wants end to blood donation bans for gays and bisexuals

As already mentioned, the discussions around the ban on blood donations for gays and bisexuals have rarely been more topical than nowadays. The FDP in particular plays an important role in this context. It holds the view that it is not a person's sexual orientation that is decisive for a possible ban, but rather individual behaviour that is meaningful.

Or, in other words: the risk of a gay or a Bisexual The risk of transmitting diseases via the blood naturally increases with unprotected sexual intercourse with frequently changing partners.

The USA as a good example?

The current Corona crisis shows in an impressive way how quickly existing regulations or laws can obviously be changed in an emergency.

Because: until recently, a time limit of 12 months also applied in the USA. This has now been lifted. Currently, gay and bisexual blood donors "only" have to wait three months. The updated regulation was thus an important step and certainly represents the more contemporary variant.

Particularly interesting: until 2015, gay men in the USA were per se prohibited from donating their blood. Accordingly, already the "jump" to the 12-month span could be seen as a real "caesura".

The reason behind the blood donation ban: why is it made more difficult for homosexuals to donate blood?

Even though blood donations are needed in a wide variety of medical fields, many people show scepticism when it comes to accepting the blood of homosexuals. This can be explained by the high HIV infection rate in the 1980s. This led to the introduction of a complete ban on blood donations from gays in many countries.

The successes in the fight against Aids have resulted in the aforementioned bans being relaxed in many cases. Above all, convincing educational work, optimised blood tests and medicines have ensured that in many places there is now much less discrimination than a few years ago.

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