“While this eligibility change represents a significant step on our continual journey to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive national transfusion and transplantation system, we still have considerable work to do to build trust and repair relationships with LGBTQIA+ communities,” Sher said in a statement.
Graham Sher, CEO of Canadian Blood Services, hailed the lifting of the ban as the “result of over a decade of work to make participation in Canada’s Lifeline as inclusive as possible.” The sexually active ban was then dropped to one year in 2016 and finally three months in 2019. In 2013, a lifetime donor ban on sexually active gay and bisexual men was reduced to a five-year restriction. The change will go into effect by the end of September.Ĭanadian Blood Services, which operates in all provinces except Quebec, had requested the change to Health Canada criteria following several other revisions of the ban in recent years. Health Canada will no longer ask men if they have had sex with another man within three months of donating blood, and will instead screen donors of all genders and sexual orientations for high-risk sexual behavior equally, according to a release. Canadian health authorities on Thursday announced that this fall they will lift a ban on blood donations from men who have sex with other men, making eligibility criteria the same for them as for every other donor.
