New blood donation rules leave room for LGBTQ stigma

(The Hill) — The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) updated blood donation guidelines were issued last month with the aim of being more inclusive of the LGBTQ community, but community members say the agency has left the door open for stigma and discrimination.Under the new guidelines, all donors will answer a series of “individual risk-based questions” regardless of sexual orientation, sex or gender. But people who are on PrEP, the antiretroviral medicine used to preven