Chicago City Wire

May 11 , U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05), Vice-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, applauded the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) finalized guidance that extends blood donation eligibility to additional members of the LGBTQI+ community. The new guidance recommends that blood donation centers use an individual risk-based questionnaire to screen all blood donors and removes some existing restrictions on blood donations from men who have sex with men. Quigley has long advocated for a transition to an individual risk-based determination system. In the wake of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, he joined the LGBTQI+ community in criticizing the FDA for preventing members of the community from donating blood to support their peers. In the time since, he has repeatedly called on FDA to follow the science and update their guidance.

“Today’s announcement is a major accomplishment for the LGBTQI+ community. With this news, we have broken through a barrier that has stood for far too long—one based not on science, but on fear and discrimination,” said Quigley. “Now, all Americans will undergo the same risked-based assessment regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. Members of the LGBTQI+ community have consistently been denied the right to donate blood in times of need. This updated guidance puts that reality in the past. I’m proud to have made this effort a priority throughout my time in Congress and even more proud to see our work lead to real change.”

For decades, members of the LGBTQI+ community have been barred from donating blood based on discriminatory deferral policies. These policies have reduced the availability of blood and added to an already harmful stigma. Today’s guidance will reverse these categorical restrictions and allow for broader eligibility for blood donation. Quigley looks forward to the FDA and blood centers across the country implementing this new guidance expeditiously and welcoming more of the LGBTQI+ community in this life-saving practice.

Last month, Quigley led a letterwith Representatives Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Eric Sorensen (IL-17) and 23 other Members of Congress to the Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA in support of the proposed guidance. In their letter, the members called on the FDA to reevaluate a restriction on blood donation by people taking PrEP—or pre-exposure prophylaxis—a medicine people at risk for HIV take to prevent getting HIV from sex or injection drug use. While the final guidance is largely unchanged from the draft guidance published in January, Quigley will continue to work closely with the FDA on next steps to narrowing this exclusion criteria while ensuring the safety of the blood supply.

Since his first term in Congress, Representative Quigley has led the effort to reverse blood donation restrictions. In 2009, Quigley led his first letteron blood donation restrictions, and since, has engaged with the FDA on this issue over 35 separate times. In the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting, there was an urgent need for blood for LGBTQI+ community members who were injured in the attack. In response, Quigley introduced the Science in Blood Donation Act of 2020. In 2021, he was an original cosponsor of a resolution expressing that the United States' blood donation policies should be equitable and based on science. That same year, Quigley led five of his colleagues in sending a letter to the FDA Commissionerexpressing their strong support for the ADVANCE Study. The ADVANCE Study sought to collect new data and modernize the science to ensure that these outdated policies can be safely and finally overturned.

Original source can be found here.