On June 14th 2021, the NHS Blood Transfusion service relaxed rules on blood donation to allow gay men to donate for the first time within monogamous relationships. Prior to that, rules had varied banning men who have sex with men from 12 months up to a life time of bans.
This episode deep dives into the reasons behind this, where does this come from and what impact does the change have on HIV infection risks. As ever, it does so with a cheeky comedic wink and at least one reference to an early 00's girlband.
With host comedian Aaron Twitchen
@aarontwitchen on all platforms
To donate blood, which you should, and find out your eligibility to donate blood please visit: https://www.blood.co.uk/who-can-give-blood/
Great information on HIV, and all sexual testing and protection is available from the Terrence Higgins trust: www.tht.org.uk
An excellent article about the risk of blood donation was written by Benjamin Weil for Huck Magazine: https://www.huckmag.com/perspectives/opinion-perspectives/easing-the-gay-blood-ban-means-more-sexual-stigma/
For more about the weird APAUSE sex education programme Aaron contributed too.... http://www.sreproject.org/apause
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