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Recently, The New York Times called one of their little exposés of normal people with government jobs no one had ever heard of the “deep state” and then went on to say that those people and their jobs are “kind of awesome.” It is always enlightening when the incompetent media tries to use propaganda and fails spectacularly. It’s obvious that they never even consulted the official definition of the “deep state” — a body of people, typically influential members of government agencies or the military, believed to be involved in the secret manipulation or control of government policy — before...

This year, the FDA announced it would no longer be issuing blanket bans due to sexual orientation and instead screen potential donors on their risk of contracting and transmitting HIV, with the policy going into effect in August. At the time, the federal health agency said it would use "gender-inclusive, individual risk-based questions" without compromising "the safety or availability of the blood supply."

Other screening questions will remain the same -- for everyone. Potential donors will be asked about risk factors including sexual activity -- whether they have had sexual contact with a new partner in the past three months or had anal sex, which would require them to wait three months before donating. The Red Cross said the decision is supported by decades of data collection and assessments, including the ADVANCE study, which was funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA approved new rules for blood donation in May that eliminated waiting periods on the basis of sexual orientation...

The American Red Cross is changing its donor screening policy to allow gay and bisexual men to donate blood. The humanitarian organization announced the change on Monday, removing a historic barrier in the donation process by not considering sexual orientation as a risk factor. Other screening questions will remain the same. Potential donors will be asked about risk factors including sexual activity. Specifically they will be asked if they have had sexual contact with a new partner in the past three months and had anal sex. The Red Cross said the decision is supported by decades of data collection and...

For the past 40 years, the LGBTQ+ blood ban has prevented members of the community from donating blood in what can only be deemed a simultaneously discriminatory and damaging policy, particularly in the face of a serious national blood shortage. ... And so in protest of this hateful and harmful ban, artist Zain Curtis has released a new tee shirt featuring the real blood of gay men in order to create an actual "statement piece." As Curtis explained in an announcement post on Instagram, the limited edition shirt is screen printed using a special red ink created by Mother Goods...

Until now men who have sex with men had to wait three months before donating. From Monday, gay men in sexually active, monogamous relationships can donate for the first time. Anyone who has had anal sex with a new or multiple partners in the past three months will have to wait three months to donate - regardless of their gender. It follows a review by the Fair (For the Assessment of Individualised Risk) steering group, which concluded switching to an individualised, gender-neutral approach was fairer and maintained the safety of the blood supply. The review's recommendations are to be implemented...

Everyone undecided, or not taking this vaccine, remember this: If you are having future scheduled medical procedures done, bank some of your blood ahead of time. These mrna snippets get inside cells, that includes blood cells. Don’t forget this is another vector where you could wind up with mrna vaccine in you even though you avoided the shot, or haven't decided if you want it or not.

The state Senate on Wednesday voted to no longer make it a felony for someone infected with HIV to knowingly expose others to the disease by having unprotected sex without telling his or her partner about the infection.The crime would be downgraded to a misdemeanor, and the bill would also apply to people who donate blood or semen without telling the blood or semen bank that they have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, or have tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, the precursor to AIDS.The measure, which next goes to the Assembly for consideration, was introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco),...

The Food and Drug Administration has recommended screening the entire US blood supply for the Zika virus, it announced today, noting that screening donated blood is already underway in Florida and Puerto Rico. The new recommendation applies "across the board to anyone collecting blood," explained Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. This includes very large blood collection establishments, such as the American Red Cross, and some very small establishments, such as academic centers, he said. The Red Cross said it will phase in universal testing. Currently, it is conducting Zika tests in five...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened the door on Tuesday to a change in its blood donor deferral recommendations, which currently prohibit donations from gay men for a year following their last sexual encounter in order to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In December the FDA overturned a 30-year ban on all blood donations from men who have sex with men, saying the change was based on science showing an indefinite ban was not necessary to prevent transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus. The FDA is now signaling it may go further. Gay...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened the door on Tuesday to a change in its blood donor deferral recommendations, which currently prohibit donations from gay men for a year following their last sexual encounter in order to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In December the FDA overturned a 30-year ban on all blood donations from men who have sex with men, saying the change was based on science showing an indefinite ban was not necessary to prevent transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus. The FDA is now signaling it may go further.

A partial federal ban on gay men donating blood is "discriminatory" and hurtful in that it turned away potential donors after the June 12 massacre that killed 49 men and women at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, 24 U.S. Senators said in a letter Monday. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., were among 23 Democrats and one Republican -- Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois -- who signed the letter to U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Robert Califf. ... "Yet, some of those most touched by this tragedy -- members of the LGBT community, who are especially eager...

... Blood supply experts say the FDA will need to determine whether the move to a one-year waiting period for gay and bisexual men made the blood supply less, more or just as safe. That effort will take several years, and only then would the agency be able to consider relaxing its restrictions further, said Brian Custer, who has led a number of studies on the nation's blood supply and is associate director of the Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI) in San Francisco. Removing the waiting period altogether would also likely require a large-scale study that tested blood samples of...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nullified a 30-year ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men. The FDA ban, which went into effect during the 1980s AIDS crisis, prohibited blood from gay men as a way to stop transmission of HIV. Many early cases of AIDS and HIV resulted from blood transfusions, as was the case with tennis superstar Arthur Ashe. However, the new policy will not accept “donations from men who have had sex with another man in the previous year.” Australia and the United Kingdom also use the 12-month window. “Ultimately, the 12-month deferral window is...

The Food and Drug Administration has lifted the ban on blood donations from men who have engaged in sexual relations with another man. Now, in order to donate blood, a man will have had to have been abstinent for the period of one year prior to donation. This new policy is similar to the deferral period for a woman who has engaged in sexual activity with a man who had previously sexual activity with another man, or for someone who has traveled to a country where malaria is prevalent. The Food and Drug Administration released final rules on Monday that...

PARIS — France will lift a ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men starting next year, officials announced on Wednesday, joining a growing list of countries that have loosened or scrapped such restrictions, which many see as outdated vestiges of the 1980s AIDS crisis. “Giving one’s blood is an act of generosity and of civic responsibility that cannot be conditioned by sexual orientation,” the health minister, Marisol Touraine, said in a statement. “While respecting the absolute security of patients, it is a taboo, a discrimination that is being lifted today.”

The federal government is on the brink of lifting restrictions put in place more than three decades ago when regulators, alarmed by the spread of the virus that causes AIDS, barred men who had sex with other men from donating blood. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will begin a two-day meeting on the issue Tuesday, amid growing calls from medical groups, gay rights activists and lawmakers to jettison the ban as outdated and discriminatory.

Gay men just got a step closer to being able to donate blood. Since 1983, men who have had sex with men anytime since 1977 were barred from donating blood, a policy put in place because of the HIV/AIDs epidemic, which especially ravaged the gay community in its early years. But on Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Blood and Tissue Safety voted 16-2 to tweak the ban, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, suggesting instead that men who have had sex with men could give blood, but with a caveat. They’d have to be abstinent for...

•Men who have sex with other men have been banned from donating blood by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 1977. •According to the CDC, gay and bisexual men accounted for 63 percent of new HIV infections in 2010. Universities across the country are hosting a National Gay Blood Drive today to encourage the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to change its current policies which prevent gay men from donating blood. According to the FDA’s website, men who have sex with other men (MSM) have an increased risk for HIV, hepatitis B and other types of infections that can...

WASHINGTON, DC, December 4, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows approximately 62 percent of gay men who know they have HIV/AIDS continue to engage in sexual relations without using a prophylactic, a behavior that can spread AIDS. The report, which was released on the Friday after Thanksgiving, analyzed data gathered in 2011. According to the report, the percentage of men with HIV/AIDS having sex with other men without a condom had increased from 55 percent in 2005, to 57 percent in 2008, to 62 percent today. CDC spokesperson Nikky Mayes told LifeSiteNews.com...