How might that number change if men who have had sex with men were no longer prohibited from giving blood? After the American Medical Association voted against the FDA’s lifetime ban last year, board member William Kobler said the policy “is discriminatory and not based on sound science.” In a statement released last month, the American Association of Blood Banks, America’s Blood Centers and the American Red Cross said the FDA’s indefinite deferral was “medically and scientifically unwarranted,” recommending instead a 12-month deferral.Ĭurrently 9.2 million people donate blood in the United States each year, according to the American Red Cross. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.8 percent of U.S. men are gay and 0.4 percent are bisexual based on the responses of more than 34,000 adults in a 2013 survey. Census, there are 120.2 million males in the U.S.
