Source: BBC News, Glasgow Evening Times, Press Association
Gay activists today demanded of Scottish government chiefs that they be allowed to donate blood.

Gay and bisexual men in the UK are banned from giving blood because transfusion chiefs believe it poses an increased HIV risk.

Campaigners appeared before Scottish Parliament's petitions committee today calling for the "blanket ban" on this group to be lifted in Scotland.

Pressure on the Scottish Government comes from gay rights groups, the National Union of Students and LibDem MSP Ross Finnie - who claim the rules on blood donation are outdated.

Rob McDowall of the Equal Rights Now group said potential donors should be assessed on the basis of their individual behaviour. He presented a public petition to the committee with almost 1300 signatures.

The LGBT Network said safe sex practices meant men who have sex with other men should be able to give blood.

The group pointed out that there were no restrictions on heterosexual people who have unprotected sex giving blood.

The petitions committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government, blood and tissue organisations, as well as pressure groups on the issue for further information.

The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service said it had a duty to make sure patients got the safest blood possible.

Tory committee member Nanette Milne said she was a former blood donor who could no longer donate because of medication she was taking.

"The paramount thing has to be public safety as far as possible when dealing with blood donations," she said.

But a spokesman for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Network said: "The blanket ban on gay and bisexual men giving blood is an outdated policy that was put in place decades ago when people believed Aids was an exclusively gay disease.

"We now know that this is far from the case. There is no clinical reason for the blanket ban on gay and bisexual men giving blood.

"It is a policy from a bygone era, which unfairly discriminates.

"The SNBTS should instead focus on all donors' unsafe sexual practices, rather than single out gay and bisexual men."

But Dr Brian McClelland, from the Scottish Blood Service, said: "Even the highly sensitive tests for hepatitis and HIV that are performed on every donation cannot completely exclude all risk of infection, so an essential first step - and a requirement of UK law - is to avoid collecting donations if there is evidence that the risk of blood-transmissible infections may be raised.

"The blood services of the UK, like those in most European countries, USA and Canada, do not accept donations from men who report that they have had sex with another man," he said.

Dr McClelland claimed that research continued to show that removing the current bar on donations by men who have sex with men would lead to an increase in the very small risk of HIV transmission due to infections in the very early stage that may be impossible to detect. 

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said ministers realised the rule that excludes gay and bisexual male donors was "frustrating" for people who felt they carried no risk.

But she added: "It is sometimes necessary to exclude people whose blood would probably be safe because they are from part of a group that carries a high risk.

"Advances in blood transfusion safety procedures may allow gay and bisexual male donors to donate in the future."

Full article: Fight to allow gay blood donors | BBC News
Gays Demand Right To Be Blood Donors | Glasgow Evening Times
Bid to reverse ban on gay donors | Press Association