Canada will allow gay and bisexual men
to donate blood without restrictions starting in September.
In response to the AIDS crisis, Canada
in 1992 banned men who have sex with men from donating blood for
life. In 2013, a deferral period was implemented, allowing gay men
who had been celibate for five years to donate blood. That was later
eased to a three-month period.
Starting on September 30, the Canadian
Blood Services (CBS) will introduce a new behavior-based
questionnaire to screen donors on whether they engage in risky sexual
behaviors.
CBS, which collects most of the
nation's blood donations, requested the policy change last year.
Similar bans have been falling across
the globe in recent years, including in the UK, France, and Brazil.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal
party promised to end the ban during the 2015 election.
Trudeau on Thursday said that the
policy change was long overdue and called the current ban
“discriminatory and wrong.”
A three-month ban on gay men donating
blood remains in the United States.
(Related: White
House says Biden is committed to ensuring gay blood ban is based on
science, not stigma.)