New screening process expected by fall, years after Trudeau’s promise to reverse the ban
The federal government will no longer automatically ban sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating blood to Canadian Blood Services, ending a policy that has long been criticized as discriminatory andHealth Canada announced the decision Thursday, years after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to eliminate the ban. Canadian Blood Services expects to implement a new donor screening process, based on sexual behaviour rather than orientation, by the end of September.
Advocates for the LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS communities greeted Health Canada’s announcement with muted celebration. “If you’re having anal sex, they don’t ask if it is protected or not, so they are not evaluating the risk,” he said. “That opens up another set of stigmatizing and triggering issues.” The Liberal Party promised to end the ban during the 2015 election campaign that brought the Trudeau government to power. Instead, the so-called deferral period was shortened to one year in 2016 and to three months in 2019.
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