Food and Drug Administration guidelines are the latest step in a yearslong effort to reverse restrictions that were designed to protect the blood supply from HIV, but which were increasingly criticized as discriminatory following scientific advances that allowed better detection of the virus. “To be able to finally step up and support the mission that I really have just believed in since I started here just makes my heart feel so happy.” “It’s been really emotionally difficult just to explain every single time the reason why,” said Smith, 28.
He and his partner gave blood for the first time the next day. Thanks to new federal guidelines finalized in May, gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can now donate at many blood centers around the country without abstaining from sex.īloodworks Northwest, where Smith works as a donor services supervisor, adopted the change on Dec. His answer was always the same: As a gay man, he couldn't. – Over the last six years, blood center employee Dylan Smith was often asked how frequently he gave blood himself.