Farron fulfils Leadership campaign promise by submitting bill to end gay blood ban

During his leadership campaign, Tim Farron said that he would submit a Bill to end the ban on gay men giving blood. Today he’s making good on that promise.

From Pink News

Mr Farron told PinkNews: “The current law which bars sexually active gay men is scientifically and socially outdated, deeply and unjustly stigmatising, and urgently needs to change.

“In 2016 I cannot see why we can’t support an evidence based approach.

“I hope my bill today is another stage in the long running campaign to deliver equality.”

The Blood Donor (Equality) Bill is described as “a Bill to make provision about the conditions to be met by male blood donors, including removing the restrictions relating to blood donation from men who have sexual intercourse with men; and for connected purposes”.

Mr Farron previously told PinkNews before becoming leader: “My pledge to you is that my first opposition day bill will be getting rid of the gay blood ban. All of these things need to be based on the science, not on prejudice.”

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5 Comments

  • One hopes this is all about ‘human rights’ and not about Mr Farron trying to compensate for the glitch in his leadership campaign which was exploited by some of Norman Lamb’s less scrupulous supporters.

    Before anyone rushes in to support this ‘right on’ issue, I hope they give full consideration to what testing safeguards are in place for the recipients of the blood. The recipients have human rights too.

  • “Tim Farron said that he would submit a Bill to end the ban on gay men giving blood”

    Well that’s misleading for a start. There is no general “ban on gay men giving blood”. Rather, men who have sex with other men are told they should not give blood within 12 months afterwards. A woman who has sex with such a man is subject to the same 12-month restriction.

    I haven’t looked in to the science of this (and, since I’m not medically qualified, could only do so as an amateur anyway) but it seems to me a question for the doctors, not politicians. The medical bodies should be allowed to set their own rules, so long as they can produce evidence to back it up. I don’t know whether the current rules are justified by science. What I do know, though, is that this should be a purely medical matter, and it’s really muddying the waters for Farron to be throwing words like “equality” and “prejudice” around here. Equality shouldn’t really come in to it.

    Incidentally I see that women who accept money for sex are currently banned for life from giving blood, which rules out many of the 250,000 students who – it was reported yesterday – are resorting to selling themselves on “sugar daddy” websites to pay their Lib Dem-imposed university fees.

  • Cllr C J Hogg 10th Feb '16 - 12:39am

    I’ve been running an organ donor campaign as Mayor and gave my kidney to my wife on Thursday last week. I was told by gay men ‘We can’t be organ donors’ which is untrue. However, it is hardly surprising given gay men have been restricted from giving blood. Three people die every day in the UK waiting for a transplant. How many lives could have been saved? Thank you Tim!

  • It’s hard to know where to start on this, but:

    1. “In 2016 I cannot see why we can’t support an evidence based approach”
    SaBTO advise the Gov on these matters, a list of members can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/advisory-committee-on-the-safety-of-blood-tissues-and-organs . Like Stuart above, I’m not an expert but I think I’d put more faith in the advise from the people on that list than from any politician.

    2. “a Bill to make provision about the conditions to be met by male blood donors” SaBTO set the conditions for all donors, which obviously includes male donors, so what is changing?

    What the article also fails to mention is the bit at the bottom of the Pink News article, i.e. the Health Minister has stated that that SaBTO are doing a review in 2016, so the guidance may change anyway. If the panel of experts look at the evidence and state that the guidance shouldn’t change, is Tim Farron saying that they should be ignored?

  • @ Cllr C.J. Hogg Well done, Chris.

    As a transplant survivor (and a former Councillor for Fell & Strickland Ward) I send my very best wishes to you and your wife for a full recovery. Good luck with the campaign.

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