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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: Pride Month: Why Canada’s blood donation ban for gay men matters for Jews
Description: This past Monday, just in time for Pride Week, Canadian Blood Services quietly posted an update on their website, recommending the elimination of Canada's "blood ban". The ban forbids gay, bisexual and other queer men from donating blood if they've had sex with men in the last three months. The rule used to require five years of celibacy, before getting truncated down to one year; only in 2019 did Canadian Blood Services change the criteria, lowering it to three months.
Canadian Blood Services says they're still worried about the risk of contaminating Canada’s blood supply—their data sugg...