Germany will lift the strict restrictions governing blood donations by homosexuals since the 1980s and the start of the AIDS epidemic, the Minister of Health announced on Tuesday.
"
Whether or not someone can become a blood donor is a question of risky behavior, not sexual orientation,
" Karl Lauterbach told the regional group RND.
"
There must be no hidden discrimination on this subject
," argued the Minister of Health in the government of Olaf Scholz.
End of exclusion
The amendment to the law on transfusions that the minister will present, quoted in the German press, now provides that "
sexual orientation and gender identity should not be exclusion criteria
".
The modification of the law is announced for April 1st but the College of Physicians will have four additional months to draw up a new non-discriminatory directive.
Restrictions on blood donation for homosexuals, dating from the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, were then motivated by fears that the risk of transmission of the virus through blood donation was particularly high among homosexual men.
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According to the current directive of the German Medical Association, homosexuals can only donate blood if they have not had sex with "
a new partner or more than one sexual partner
" in the last four months .
The directive had already been relaxed slightly in 2021: before that date, the deadline was twelve months.
The lifting of these restrictions, which have been denounced for many years by anti-discrimination associations, is included in the contract of the coalition between Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals in power since the end of 2021. “
The abolition of discrimination is expected for a long time and I am delighted that Karl Lauterbach is attacking it now
”, reacted the ministerial delegate for the LGBT cause Sven Lehmann, with the newspapers of the Funke group.
Before Germany, many countries, such as France, Spain, Italy, Israel and England, have already changed their conditions of access to blood donation in this direction.
