Laws that dictate whether jocund men and sex workers can donate rake in England and Scotlandare to be further loosen up . The change now imply that both groups will be able to donate profligate three month after throw sexuality , as opposed to the current womb-to-tomb ban for sexual practice doer and the year - long delay for gay hands .
The move was announced as part of a raft of equalities reforms by the governance , which also include make it easier for multitude to legally transfer their gender . It hasbeen welcomed by charities and groupscampaigning for blood donation rules for jolly mankind to be lend in crinkle with those of heterosexual multitude , although many still want them to become truly equal .
“ This government is committed to build an inclusive companionship that ferment for everyone , no matter what their gender or gender and today we ’re consume the next step forrard , ” Education Secretary Justine Greening suppose in a in astatement . “ We will establish on the significant advance we have made over the past 50 years , undertake some of the historic prejudices that still persist in our law of nature and giving LGBT the great unwashed a real say on the issues affecting them . ”
It was during the height of the AIDS epidemic that gay men werebanned for life from donating blood , due to the fear that they would pass the disease on to those who receive transfusion . It was not until 2011 that candidate successfully managed to get the banning hoist , but only in part . natural law introduced in England and Scotland allowed gay work force to donate blood , but only if they had been celibate for over 12 month . Gay men in Northern Ireland had towait until 2016for their laws to get up with the remainder of the UK .
This discrepancy between homosexual and heterosexual people has long been realize by many in the LGBT+ community as discrimination . For example , a heterosexual person who has had many sexual partner over a period of a year is free to donate blood , while a homosexual individual in a monogamous family relationship is presently only allowed to do so if they refrain from sex for a year .
This late move , however , has been seen as a major step in the good direction . The change was driven in part by advances in medical tests to find bloodborne diseases , include hepatitis B , C , and HIV . This also mean that the womb-to-tomb ban on sex workers donating blood has been shrink to be in line with that of jocund men .
