The Hill: Overnight Healthcare: Dems call for end to blood donation ban from gay men

The following article was published in The Hill on June 13, 2016. A link to the article can be found here.

By Peter Sullivan

Leading gay rights advocates in Congress plan to ask the White House to end a decades-old policy that prohibits many gay men from donating blood in the wake of the deadly Orlando, Fla., shooting at a gay nightclub.

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), the vice chair of the House LGBT Equality Caucus, is drafting a letter to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf urging him to strike down the rule they have long called outdated and discriminatory.

Quigley is joining three other longtime critics of the ban -- Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) -- to call for the end of the ban following the Orlando shooting.

The FDA announced in December that it would now allow gay men to donate blood, but only if they have been celibate for a year. Under previous rules, men who have had sex with men were banned from donating indefinitely.

Quigley and other opponents of the ban blasted the FDA's move, which they said left in place a "de facto" ban. Read more here. https://bit.ly/1PYEAAj