Ban behavior, not gays.The Red Cross recently joined U.S. blood banks and blood centers in urging the Food and Drug Administration to end its controversial lifetime ban on blood donation “Give blood” redirects here. For other uses, see Give blood (disambiguation). Blood donation is a process by which a blood donor voluntarily has blood drawn for storage in a blood bank, generally for subsequent use in a blood transfusion. by sexually active gay men. A ban that excludes only men who have had sex with men in the past year--the same moratorium that applies to IV drug users--will do just fine, they say. But some AIDS activists oppose any ban that might stigmatize stig·ma·tize tr.v. stig·ma·tized, stig·ma·tiz·ing, stig·ma·tiz·es 1. To characterize or brand as disgraceful or ignominious. 2. To mark with stigmata or a stigma. 3. gays. Jonathan Givner, director of Lambda Legal's HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. Project, said we need "a policy that's based on actual risk behavior rather than sexual orientation--a policy that won't ask [whether] you are a man who has had sex with another man." The national HIV Medicine Association recently developed a policy statement that would do just that and sent it off to the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. , which has said it will review its current policy sometime this year. |
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