For years, Jose Dominguez, 50, had wanted to donate blood, feeling it was part of his civic duty. But he was restricted by rules set in place by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration that did not allow sexually active gay men from donating. That finally changed in May 2023, when the FDA dropped all restrictions specific to gay and bisexual men donating blood, moving to a new blood donation risk assessment tool that is the same for every donor regardless of how they identify, which rolled out in August 2023. In March of this year, Dominguez finally donated blood for the first time, and he did so with his husband, Craig Burdett.
For Burdett, 62, it was the first time he had donated blood since 1997, when he began openly identifying as gay. SEE ALSO: Red Cross implements FDA policy allowing more gay and bisexual men to donate blood "I was grinning just from ear to ear, just because of the fact that we were able to do this," Dominguez, who is the head of the American Red Cross Long Island chapter, told ABC News. "I've never done it before, and I was getting to do it with my husband.
" "This is something that we had talked about along during our relationship and anytime somebody said they donated blood, I'm like, 'That is such a privilege. It is such a privilege to be able to do that and one day, we will,'" he continued. "But it was just like, 'Whoa, this is so cool.
It's finally happening.'" So, did the rule change bring in more donors? Blood donation organizations say although it.
