The chair of Windsor Pride Community is celebrating a recommendation from Canadian Blood Services to end a ban on sexually active gay men donating blood.
Colm Holmes says this policy was never rooted in evidence but in stigma and homophobia, and believes when it comes to the health and wellness of anyone in the LGBTQ community that it should be rooted in scientific data.
"We know that our particular population is at no extra risk with they way they test blood donations," he says. "This is a shift toward it being rooted in science and not rooted in beliefs. I think that is huge," he says.
Canadian Blood Services submitted a proposal to Health Canada, backed by research, suggesting that screening focus on high-risk behaviour, including having multiple sexual partners, by all donors instead.
Canada introduced a lifetime ban for gay men in 1992 partly because of H-I-V.
In 2013, it allowed blood to be accepted from a man who abstained from sex with another man for at least five years.
The waiting period then dropped to one year, and became three months in 2019.
Federal ministers, including the prime minister, have said they want to speed up an end to the gay blood ban, and Health Canada is expected to respond to the blood-service recommendation by the spring.
Holmes says this policy has been a signal to the LGBTQ community that you can't donate.
"We're encouraging members of our community to contact our local members of Parliament and vocalize their support in order to get the removal of this policy within Canadian Blood Services," he says.
The blood service said its goal is to stop asking men if they have had sex with another man.
It says research it has conducted, and evidence from abroad, shows that the change would pose no safety risk to the blood supply.
Windsor Pride Community is a charitable organization aiming to create a culture of belonging for Windsor-Essex’s LGBTQ people and their families, allies, employers and educators through education, empowerment and support programs and services.