Congratulations, gay men of Canada! Come summer, Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec can accept your blood donations for the first time since 1983. That is, if you haven’t had any sex with a man for the past five years.

That’s right: you can donate your much-needed blood so long as you’ve been saving yourself for this moment for the past five years. The move offers a great excuse for those unlucky guys who just couldn’t get any for years, but it is a far cry from what protestors and lobby groups have been demanding for years - a complete end to what they believe is a needless, discriminatory practice.

André Picard, the Globe and Mail’s public health columnist, wrote an editorial piece decrying the new rules for putting “damage control ahead of sound science.”  He writes, “We should be screening blood donors based on their sexual practices, not on their sexual orientation.”

In other words: a gay man in a committed relationship is as likely to contract HIV or AIDs as any heterosexual man, and a heterosexual person with “high-risk” sexual activities is equally as likely as anyone else to be infected.

According to the Canadian Blood Services website, “Approximately every minute of every day someone needs blood,” and Picard states, “More than 1.1 million units of blood are collected in Canada each year, but shortages are ever-looming.” This new policy may sound like something drafted by the Vatican - we have no problem with gay people, just when they act on it! - but for now let’s take a moment to pat ourselves on the back for ensuring that another 12 or so people can donate blood soon. Yeah!

  Globe and Mail