Danish gay men should be allowed to donate blood

Political majority supports new proposal

Lucie Rychla

Aug 18, 2016

A majority in Parliament agrees that homosexual men should be allowed to donate blood in Denmark.

Dansk Folkeparti (DF), Socialdemokraterne (S) and Alternativet are ready to support a new proposal by Radikale’s leader, Morten Østergaard, who wants to lift the country’s ban on gay men donating blood.

“It is a good proposal, and I do not even understand that we [still] have such a discrimination,” Liselott Blixt, the health rapporteur for DF, told Metroxpress.

A similar proposal was submitted by six parties two years ago, but was not passed.

Homosexual men are not allowed to donate blood because they are believed to be at a greater risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis than straight men.

“We just have to constantly make sure that it’s not going to affect patient safety,” Flemming Møller Mortensen, the health rapporteur for S, told Metroxpress.

“Nothing is more important than patient safety.”

According to Statens Serum Institut, men who have sex with men are 50 times more likely to get HIV than heterosexual men.

Fluency in Danish is also a requirement to make donations.

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Danish gay men should be allowed to donate blood

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