ORLANDO, Fla. — In the days after the 2016 Pulse gay nightclub shooting ―the second-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history — gay and bisexual men were turned away from donating blood unless they had been celibate for a year.
“Our community really wanted to give back in that way. They wanted to be able to donate blood for those who needed it, who were injured that night, and weren’t allowed to. I think that really weighed heavily on (them),” said Brandon Wolf, press secretary for Equality Florida and a Pulse survivor.
Currently, men who have sex with men must be celibate for three months to donate blood. For years, LGBTQ advocates, blood banks and medical associations have argued this waiting period is unnecessary and discriminatory. The data supported their position, too: 29% of people diagnosed with HIV in 2020 were not men who had sex with men. On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration proposed an update.
