[Carbonsteel]

As long as it takes to detect HIV after exposure, to allow a segment of the population with the high HIV transmission rates to donate blood is pure insanity.

The stupidity of this once great nation never ceases to amaze me.

[heartwood]

Nonetheless, a petition a WhiteHouse.gov, created in November by students at the University of Michigan, claims the FDA policy is “discriminatory and inadequate.” The students want the federal government to merely ask prospective donors, “Have you had unprotected sexual contact with a new partner in the past 12 weeks?”

There's a list of people signing up for the gay blood bank.

While other advocates of homosexual blood donation have argued that MSM should be allowed to donate if they say they haven’t had sex with men in at least one to five years – the current guidelines in Britain and Canada – Brooks said any such deferral period presents yet another complication.

“Part of the problem, to me, is you’re asking gay men to be celibate for a year to donate blood – or five years,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. It’s certainly been documented in the medical literature that if we went to a one-year deferral period, it would not significantly add to the blood supply.”

The only stigma that homosexual men face is having to duck out of the workplace blood drives. Shouldn't be too hard. If they feel drawn to do public service, there are many other opportunities.

Being celibate or monogamous would probably be the biggest public service they could do, as a group. Not gonna happen.