EDGE on the Net

Via a We The People online petition, GMHC will force President Barack Obama to pressure the FDA to reform their policy against gay men donating blood.

On Jan. 16, activists in South Florida launched a campaign to urge the Food and Drug Administration to rethink its nearly 30-year ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men.

The Department of Health and Human Services is revisiting the issue of whether the Food and Drug Administration’s blatantly discriminatory blood ban on gays is due for modification.

A Canadian judge has upheld the ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men who have had even single sexual encounter with a person of the same gender since 1977.

Facing surgery? You could receive blood that’s been stored for a week, or three weeks, or nearly six - and there’s growing concern that people who get the older blood might not fare as well.

In the wake of a July 26 hearing on the lifetime ban on gay blood donors conducted by the Food and Drug Administration’s Blood Products Advisory Committee, two Congressmen have kept up the push to rescind a ban that many see as discriminatory and unnecessary.

A leading medical journal says the world could boost its blood supply from young donors by tapping into social networks like Facebook and Google.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and more than 40 other congressional leaders are continuing a push to get the government to revise its lifetime ban on blood donations by men who have sex with men (MSMs).

The perennial issue of men who have sex with men (MSMs) being banned for life from giving blood has resurfaced, with the some saying that the ban is in place for good reason while others argue that the gay ban is stricter than similar restrictions for heterosexuals.

There is no valid scientific reason to deny gay blood donors. The ban stems not from sound health policy, but from outmoded social prejudice--an all too familiar theme when it comes to GLBT equality issues.