The Argentine Health Ministry has announced a resolution that will allow homosexuals to donate blood from today.
The resolution officially abolishes previous restrictions that barred people from donating blood based on sexual orientation, a measure considered discriminatory to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and intersexual (LGBTI) community.
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Homosexuals will now be able to donate blood in Argentina (Photo via Pixabay)
The new resolution modifies Resolution Nº 865/2006, which regulated Law Nº 22.990, and which required blood donors to fill out a questionnaire before donating and prohibited homosexuals from continuing with the donation process.
The Ministry of Health said in its official statement that the objective is to “advance towards a National Blood System that is safe, caring, and inclusive” and “end a long history of institutional discrimination against the LGBT[I] community.”
The Argentine Homosexual Community (CHA) has pushed the Ministry of Health to address this issue for more than 15 years. The organisation’s president, César Cigliutti, applauded the new modification.
In a statement on the CHA’s website Cigliutti said: “this new resolution is another historic step for our community and is the best answer to a sustained fight by the CHA over the last 15 years.”
The Ministry of Health also commented that this new measure seeks to educate people about risky behaviours that would exclude them from donating blood and move away from discriminatory policies directed towards specific groups and peoples.
Martín Canevaro, secretary for LGBT group ‘100% Diversity and Rights’, concluded that the new resolution “draws awareness to the fact that HIV and other sexually transmitted infections are not confined to any one sexual orientation or gender identity.”
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