The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on May 11, 2023, that it has officially dropped restrictions that prohibit gay and bisexual men from donating blood under many circumstances on May 11, 2023. The ban was initially put in place in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, but for years medical professionals and gay rights advocates have argued that the ban was no longer medically justifiable and that it unnecessarily discriminated against men who have sex with men.
Ayako Miyashita is a health policy researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies HIV treatment and prevention. She explains the history of the ban and the reasoning behind its long-awaited reversal.
