Tag Archives: blood ban

Caron Lindsay

Blood donation gets more equal and inclusive

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 16th June 2021 - 10:29 am

I was smiling a lot on Monday. On World Blood Donation Day, in the middle of Pride Month, the blood donation rules changed so that they were the same whatever your sexuality.

A decade ago, men who had ever had sex with men were completely banned from giving blood. The rules have been gradually relaxed since then but we now have a more equal system based on a level playing field.

This means that many gay and bisexual men can now give blood, whereas before we lost out on their donations.

This applies over England, Scotland and Wales.

My friend Euan was one of them.

Euan was involved with the then Liberal Youth Scotland’s Freshers campaign to end the blood ban in 2010. The year before, LYS had brought a motion to Scottish Conference calling for an evidence based, scientific approach to this issue.

They kept pushing on this. Euan and his co-President Hannah Bettsworth led a campaign on the issue when they were co-Presidents of LYS a few years later.

It made me really happy that their campaigning over years worked. These things are now decided on the basis of scientific evidence because people campaigned and took up the issue.

The Liberal Democrats have been working to bring this about for 15 years.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
Advert

Recent Comments

  • David Allen
    Let's analyse that Guardian leader: "The Tory economic pitch (tax cutting) is ... a clear bid to win back affluent southern voters. .... In the face of such ...
  • Roy Gregg
    Hi Sir Ed. Thanks for your service, but it's time for you to retire....
  • Roy Gregg
    Thanks Ed for your leadership of our party, but it's time for you to retire....
  • Nonconformistradical
    From David Sparrow's posting: "I agree now is not the time the only beneficiaries will be the Tories and Labour" I'll stick with the Guardian's viewpoint in...
  • Richard Cripps
    Thank you, Rose. Very helpful link...