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Updated August 19th, 2021 at 21:08 IST

Israel removes 'discriminatory' curbs on gay men over blood donation in 'historic step'

“When I became minister, I ordered removal of degrading questions from blood donation questionnaire, remnants of stereotype," Israel health minister said.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
Israel
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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Israel on Wednesday scrapped the discriminatory rule that banned blood donations by gay men and termed the decade-old practice as discriminatory and denigrating. Restriction on homosexual men from donating blood will be lifted on October 1, Israel's Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz announced. He tweeted, “The discrimination against gay men donating blood is over".

Furthermore, he continued, "When I became minister, I ordered the removal of the degrading and irrelevant questions from the blood donation questionnaire — remnants of a stereotype that belongs to history.' Horowitz, who is openly gay said that the government had removed the irrelevant questions regarding gender in the forms dedicated for the blood donations. “For years we have tried to get rid of [the restrictions] and now we have finally succeeded,” he wrote. 

“Everyone would be treated equally regardless of sexual orientation,” Horowitz said on Twitter, overturning the rules that imposed curbs on the LGBTQ+ community. The road to Thursday’s decision was a long and tough one, but now, moving forward, all restrictions on homosexual blood donors will be lifted, he said. 

 “There is no difference between blood and blood. This is a historical step forward for equal rights for the LGBT community in Israel," Israel's Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz tweeted. 

Hailing the landmark decision, the Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel issued a statement saying, “Ending discrimination in blood donations is a historic step for the gay community and for Israeli society on the way to equality.” It continued, “The blood of hundreds of thousands of citizens is not second class.” The organization acknowledged Horowitz’s decision calling it one of the most significant “which eliminates outdated stereotypes toward the gay community.” Israel’s laws barred the men in same-sex relations for the past 12 months to donate blood as the questionnaire that inspected their sexual identity disqualified them. 

Head of Israeli LGBT Medical Associations thanks health minister

The form now asks if the prospective donor has had “high-risk sexual relations with a new partner or partners” in the past three months as a part of the effort to use gender-neutral words. This would prohibit discriminatory acts against gay men who may want to make blood donations. “There’s no difference between one blood and the other,” Horowitz said on Facebook, adding that all forms of discrimination against gays were now done away with. Head of the Israeli LGBT Medical Associations in Israel,  Gal Wagner, took to Twitter to thank Horowitz for making a sweeping “historical correction.”

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Published August 19th, 2021 at 21:08 IST

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