Australia To Do Away with Gay Blood Ban – And Some Restrictions Around Behavior, Too

When Britain, and later the United States, repealed bans on queer men donating blood, they kept certain restrictions in place around sexual behavior. In the U.S., for example, gay men still faced exclusion if they had had sex with a new partner within three months prior of wanting to donate blood – a restriction that did not apply to straight men.

Australia is set to dispense with all such restrictions when it comes to donations of plasma, as it prepares to set aside its own ban on gay blood donors, the BBC reported.

Australia's current policies "effectively banned all sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating blood and plasma," the BBC noted, adding that the existing restrictions "will begin being revoked from next month..."

Those restrictions are similar to bans once faced by men who have sex with men (MSM) in the U.S. and Britain, where, until recent years, gay and bi men faced lifetime bans on blood donations.

But Australia plans to do better than those countries did; the BBC detailed that "Australia will become the first country in the world to remove all sexual activity-based restrictions on plasma donation," though donations of blood will still entail some exceptions.

"Previously, any men or transgender women who had sex with men in the previous three months were banned from donating blood or plasma, as were sex workers and women who have sex with bisexual men," the BBC explained. "Now, most people in a sexual relationship of six months or more with a single partner will be eligible to donate blood, regardless of their gender or sexuality."

Australia will begin following "gender neutral" procedures, UK newspaper the Guardian reported.

"Every time a male donates at the moment," Dr. Jo Pink, with the blood donation charity Lifeblood, told the Guardian, "we ask them whether they have had anal sex with another man."

That procedure originated during "the HIV period, which was a very difficult period," Dr. Pink noted. "Those rules were important to have in place to protect the safety of the blood supply. But, as you know, things have changed now."

Modern screening and preparation techniques mean that such stringent bans are no longer needed.

Nor are exclusions specific to males; the BBC relayed that "all donors will be asked if they have had anal sex with new or multiple partners," and not just men. "If the answer is yes, they will need to wait three months to donate blood, but are still eligible to donate plasma."

Donors on PrEP will similarly be excluded from blood donations, though they will be able to donate plasma, the BBC added. "The only group who are still unable to donate plasma are those with HIV, and those with a partner with HIV."

The BBC writeup explained that plasma is processed in a way that "significantly reduces the risk" of transmitting any pathogen by way of donated plasma.