Due to modern blood screenings, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has deemed the ban on blood donations from some gay and bisexual men medically unnecessary, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The agency has only revised the ban on donations from men if they haven’t had sex with men in more than a year. Those who have been intimate with men within the established time frame will still not be able to donate blood, according to the report.
Revising the ban from the 1980s is seen as a step in the right direction in the eyes of some civil rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocates while others, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, maintain the proposal will still function as a lifetime ban for many gay men.
The revision still has quite a way to go before any change is actually made. A draft guidance still needs to be published, followed by a period for comments and edits before the change will be finalized sometime in 2015.
The FDA's proposal does not reflect a shortage of blood donations, according to the report.
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