France has decided to end a more than 30-year-old law that banned gay men from donating blood, a measure originally put in place to stop the spread of diseases such as HIV. Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Wednesday discrimination against potential blood donors on the basis of sexual orientation was unacceptable because it presumed that gay men all had HIV.
After a review of the measure since 2012, Touraine opted to lift the exclusion that has been in place since 1983 and was subsequently reinforced three times. "Giving blood is a generous act that cannot be conditioned by sexual orientation," Touraine said in a speech dedicated to the issue. "On the basis of proposals that were made to me ... I have decided to put an end to the exclusion from blood donation of men that have sex with men."
Touraine said blood donation from gay men would be allowed in France from next spring and would be monitored under strict conditions already in place. Men, who will not have had any sexual relation or who had some but with only one man in the past 12 months, will be allowed to donate their blood, the French health ministry said.
Well, this law is so dumb that it is more discriminatory than the previous one. It's like saying: Dear gay, you can give blood only if you are not too gay.
