Among the many questions on blood donation forms, most of which are about whether you have had diseases or have been in contact with them, are questions asking whether you have ever, even once, had sexual contact with a man since 1977. With a modern understanding of medicine and modern blood testing, people are aware they are HIV-positive within months of contracting the disease, and all blood can be screened. Rather than exclude an entire segment of the population based on this outdated measure, it is time to update the test to measure actual risk factors, such as unprotected sex with random partners regardless of gender, and to not discriminate on the basis of gender or sexuality.



