More gay and bisexual men can donate blood under new FDA guidelines

Starting Monday, more gay and bisexual men can donate blood under new guidelines from the U.S.Food and Drug Administration. North Carolina’s health secretary will be among the first in line.

Gay and bisexual men no longer must abstain from all sex for three months before donating blood. Only people who’ve had anal sex with new or multiple partners or take HIV prevention drugs will be asked to wait.

North Carolina Health Secretary Kody Kinsley, himself a gay man, was among those who urged the F.-D.A. in March to change the previous rule — intended to protect blood recipients from HIV.

“I’m thrilled that after decades of a policy that was reinforced in stigma, that the FDA has leaned into the science and created a policy that’s based off risky behaviors, and not who people are,” he said.

He says he’ll roll up his sleeve to donate at an American Red Cross site in Raleigh Monday, and hopes others will join.