Washington, D.C.  (The Adobo Chronicles) – Federal health officials today issued two new rulings that would eventually lift the 31-year-old ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood while eliminating what many believe has been a discriminatory policy.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) implemented the lifetime ban on donations from men who have sex with men in 1983, when health officials were first recognizing the risk of contracting AIDS via blood transfusions. Under the policy, blood donations are barred from any man who has had sex with another man at any time since 1977 — the start of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S.

Now, the FDA said it favors replacing the blanket ban with a new policy barring donations from men who have had man-on-man sex in the previous 12 months.

The second ruling now requires heterosexual men who wish to donate blood to be celibate for 12 months.  The FDA said this new policy would, in effect, make the playing field equal between gay/bisexual men and heterosexual men.

Both lgbt activists and the medical community immediately praised the new FDA rulings.