Call for Australia to stop delaying on gay blood ban as Switzerland accepts gay donors
The Let Us Give campaign has urged the Australian Lifeblood Service to lift the gay blood ban in the wake of
Switzerland becoming the latest country to adopt blood equality.
Switzerland previously imposed a six-month abstinence requirement on gay men seeking to give blood. But since yesterday all donors are asked the same questions about risky sexual activity regardless of the gender of their sexual partner.
Let Us Give spokesperson, Thomas Buxereau, said,
“In Australia , the Lifeblood Service is mucking around with a plasma-only donation option that won’t solve the problem and is planning research that has already been undertaken elsewhere.”
“We call on Lifeblood to stop delaying, follow Switzerland’s lead and assess all donors for their individual risk.”
“As we enter a long bushfire season, Australian gay men, and bisexual men and trans women who have sex with men, want to be able to save lives by giving blood.”
“It’s high time Lifeblood opened up that opportunity in the name of saving the lives of those in need.”
SwissMedic, the authority that licences and monitors therapeutic products, said,
"The new ineligibility criteria define even more precisely that it is indeed risky behaviour, and not a given sexual orientation, that underpins ineligibility.”
Switzerland joins Canada, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece, Israel and many other countries in allowing gay men to donate blood under the same rules that apply to everyone.
For more on developments in Switzerland: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/switzerland-lifts-extra-restrictions-against-gay-men-giving-blood-2023-11-01/
For a copy of this statement on the web, click here
For more information contact Thomas Buxereau on 0415 896 884.
