First of all, it's not a gay blood donation ban! No, I'm not ranting about Trans exclusion this time, but a wider issue - it banned bisexual men too, but lesbians are OK. It's a ban on donations from men who have had sex with men. Or MSM, for short, because that's a bit of a mouthful.

When AIDS became known in the early 1980's, there was huge uncertainty about how HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was transmitted. A sense of fear characterised the way the public responded to the disease. From the public health policies that were made in response to AIDS, the one that remains the best example of utter panic is the ban on gay men giving blood. The war-on-AIDS view is flawed because it stigmatises gay men, as wanton sex fiends, all given to dangerous sexual activities. It also supports the fallacy that the HIV virus may be contained simply by eliminating those who are considered to be the main carriers, from activities of a communal nature. It is this reasoning that leads policy makers to believe that maintaining a discriminatory gay blood ban, serves a useful public health purpose.