In the wake of news that the American Red Cross had declared the first “national blood crisis” due to critically low blood supplies, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — on Tuesday once again called for federal authorities to remove unnecessary restrictions on blood donation by men who have sex with men.

“We are facing a national blood shortage. This is a crisis that can in part be addressed by modernizing the Food and Drug Administration’s discriminatory policy that bans men who have sex with men from donating blood ” said Joni Madison, Interim President of the Human Rights Campaign. “The current policy is outdated, does not reflect the state of the science, and continues to unfairly stigmatize one segment of society.”

HRC has strongly encouraged the FDA to revise the history questionnaire used to screen potential donors to one based on an individual risk assessment of sexual behaviors upon which all donors are evaluated equally, without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity.