The NHS National Blood Service has told us it's reasons for banning gay people from becoming blood donors.

It comes down to cost, apparently.

Their opinion is that blood from a gay person may have more infections than blood from a straight person.
Therefore, they say, the costs of screening gay blood are too high.

However - surely the costs will be cheaper than running a national advertising campaign? And why are the costs of screening a straight persons blood acceptable when sexually transmitted diseases amongst hetrosexuals rise every year?

We think that there are several simple solutions though, which will both reduce the level of discrimination against gay people AND limit the extra costs on the NHS - and ultimately allow more blood into the system:

Allow people to be honest - ask if they have had unprotected sex, whether gay OR straight.
Ask donors to have a HIV and STD check first, before giving blood, whether gay OR straight.

Ultimately, we want the NHS to treat donors (and potential donors) as individuals
and to not assign them to groups - that stereotypes and discriminates.

Dropping the ban would dramatically increase both the number of potential donors and the
volume of blood stocks - and reduce the marketing spend too. Please sign the petition today.