Ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood and plasma in Australia to be scrapped
Guardian7 days
These changes represent long-overdue progress in eliminating discriminatory policies that stigmatized LGBTQ+ communities while maintaining blood supply safety. The science clearly shows that individual risk behaviors matter more than sexual identity, and pathogen deactivation technology makes plasma donation safe regardless of donor demographics. Australia is finally catching up with other progressive nations in treating all potential donors fairly.
While the changes are welcome, they don't go far enough and create unnecessary confusion with different rules for blood versus plasma donation. Other countries, such as Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., have simpler, more consistent policies that require only three months of monogamous relationships, rather than Australia's proposed six-month requirement for blood donation. The conservative approach may still exclude willing donors unnecessarily.
There's a 50% chance that at least 13.4% of American adults in 2070 will identify as LGBTQ+, according to the Metaculus prediction community.