WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) last week called to abolish the current discriminatory law that bans gay men in America from donating blood.
 
In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Kerry, along with Senators Kirstin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.),  Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Mark Udall  (D-Colo.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Tom Harkin (D-Ohio), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Roland Burris (D-Ill.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) urged Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to review and appropriately modify the current law banning men who have had any homosexual sex since 1977 from donating blood for life.  He also encouraged the FDA to undertake a review of the donor screening questionnaire to ensure the safety of the blood supply.
 
“Not a single piece of scientific evidence supports the ban,” said Sen. Kerry.  “A law that was once considered medically justified is today simply outdated and needs to end, just as last year we ended the travel ban against those with HIV.”
 
Senator Kerry also published an op-ed on the ban today in Bay Windows, New England’s largest GLBT newspaper.
 
All donated blood is mandated to be tested for HIV with two different, highly accurate tests.  Between these two tests, the risk of tainted blood entering the blood supply undetected is virtually zero.
 
The American Red Cross, America’s Blood Centers, and AABB all support repealing the ban, citing the law as “medically and scientifically unwarranted.”  The American Medical Association also supports modifying the ban.
 
In 2008, the Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation Kerry authored to lift the statutory HIV travel and immigration ban as part of the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) reauthorization.  The ban was officially lifted in October of last year.