Eligibility to donate blood should be about sexual health of the donor not about their sexuality. A straight man can have unhealthy sexual practices just as a gay man can be in a long term healthy sexual relationship, so why should one have more rights over the other based solely on their sexual orientation and not based on their sexual health.

In the UK if you are a heterosexual man that wants to donate blood your promiscuity is not questioned, this means, you could have unprotected sex with a stranger and give blood the very next day with no issues because it is your right as a straight man. However, if you are a gay man, you can only donate blood if you have abstained from sex with another man for 1 year regardless of whether you have a long term partner or have good sexual health.

Many countries around the world have already changed this law, or have never had a ban discriminating gay men in the first place. These countries have not recorded any correlation between sexuality and HIV transmission through blood transfusions. All blood donated is screened to make sure there is nothing that could be passed onto someone else, so the chances of contracting HIV/AIDs through a blood transfusion is extremely unlikely.
Here is a piece of information from the NHS UK website on the chances of contracting a viral infection from a Blood Transfusion:
“It’s extremely rare for someone to develop a viral infection from a blood transfusion, as the blood services use strict testing processes. For example, it is estimated that:
• the risk of getting hepatitis B is about 1 in 1.3 million
• the risk of getting hepatitis C is about 1 in 28 million
• the risk of getting HIV is about 1 in 6.5 million
There hasn't been a recorded case of someone developing a viral infection from a blood transfusion since 2005.”

Clyde Pride, an LGBT Youth Group from Inverclyde in Scotland, are asking you to sign a petition to show your support for their campaign to have these archaic and discriminatory rules changed so that anyone who wishes to donate blood is treated equally and fairly regardless of gender, race or sexuality. We hope that this will go some way towards tackling the current blood stock shortages we have in this country at the present moment, by making it fair for all who want to donate blood and help to save a life.