American Civil Liberties Union

Late last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provided an important status update about ongoing research studies examining the lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have ever had sex with other men since 1977.

Gay and bisexual men, intravenous drug users, people who have had sex for money and people who have tested positive for HIV disease are currently the only groups of people banned from donating blood. Gay and bisexual men are excluded regardless of their individual sexual histories or HIV risk. Despite the lifetime ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, other individuals who are also at increased risk for HIV disease, including people who have heterosexual sex with someone who they know to be living with HIV or people who have had sex with a commercial sex worker, are prevented from donating blood for only one year.

Yesterday, organizations combating HIV/AIDS received support to continue and strengthen their work with one of the populations most vulnerable to infection. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the "anti-prostitution pledge," a part of the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act. The law required nongovernmental organizations receiving U.S. funding for HIV/AIDS work to declare — or pledge — that they opposed prostitution. Most alarmingly, the pledge extended to all parts of an organization's work, even parts that didn't use U.S. money.