As of June 14, 2021, men who have sex with men no longer face targeted restrictions for blood donation in the United Kingdom. In stark contrast to the historical prejudice related to this matter, decisions on eligibility to donate blood will now be made on an individual basis, regardless of the donor’s gender. The rules now state that anybody who has had anal sex with several partners or a new partner in the last three months will not be eligible to donate.

The questions that potential donors will be asked at their eligibility check are now a lot more open and focus on individual behavior rather than sexuality. People will be asked if they have: had sex with anyone who has had syphilis, hepatitis or anyone who is HIV positive; been given money or drugs for sex; had sex with anyone who has ever been given money or drugs for sex; had sex with anyone who has ever injected drugs; taken Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis/Truvada for prevention of HIV or been prescribed Post-Exposure Prophylaxis for prevention of HIV; or used drugs during sex, excluding erectile dysfunction drugs and cannabis.

If the potential donor answered yes to any of the questions above, then they are unable to give blood right away. If they answered no to all of the questions above, they may be able to give blood if they meet the other eligibility criteria. In addition, they will be asked whether, over the last three months, they have had sex with a new partner or had sex with more than one partner. If they answer yes to that question, they will then be asked if they have had anal sex with any of their sexual partners. If they have, they will not be able to donate for three months; but, if they have not, they will be able to donate.

The reason why anal sex is specified in blood donation is that this form of sex carries a much higher risk of catching a sexually transmitted disease such as HIV, which will contaminate any blood samples taken. Previously, the restrictions have centered solely around gay and bisexual men, rather than anybody who engages in anal sex. So,were these restrictions really based on science, or rather on prejudice?

Historically in the U.K., HIV and AIDS affected gay and bisexual men at a higher rate than any other area of the population, it is this that made the country initially reluctant to allow this group to donate blood. However, more recently, it is a disease that can be found almost equally in heterosexual and homosexual or bisexual people. In fact, in 2019, the proportion of people accessing HIV care in the UK after contracting it through sexual contact was 46.1% for heterosexual contact, and 46.4% for sex between men. This shows that sexuality these days has almost no impact on the chance of a person contracting HIV. Therefore, the fact that the lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood was only lifted in 2011 suggests that it was residual prejudice that had kept the law in place for so long, rather than a sincere concern for safety.

This new step for allowing more people to donate blood is great news for the LGBT+ community and for blood donation in the UK, and I am sure we can all agree that the world would be a much better place if more countries and territories would follow in the UK’s footsteps and make this kind of change.