It also asks potential donors if they have been tattooed or engaged in intravenous drug use, as a way to help prevent diseases, including HIV, being transmitted through a transfusion. “Finally!” Egale Canada wrote on Twitter. “We definitely welcome today's decision by Health Canada to authorize Canadian Blood Services to end their discriminatory blood and plasma donation ban targeting Two-Spirit, gay, bisexual, and queer men, trans women, and other men who have sex with men.
Long overdue!”Ī lifetime ban had been put into place in 1992 as part of the fallout from the tainted blood scandal in the 1980s. That was when thousands of Canadians were exposed to HIV and hepatitis after receiving contaminated blood products. The Liberals promised to end the ban on men who have sex with men donating blood during the 2015 election campaign that brought the Trudeau government to power. The deferral period dropped to one year in 2016 and then three months in 2019. The Liberals promised in both the 20 elections to eliminate it entirely. He said his government invested $5 million to research the safety aspects of changing blood donation rules and multiple scientific reports had proven “our blood supply will continue to be safe.” Trudeau said Thursday that the policy should have ended at least a decade ago.
