Students fight ban on gay blood donors

Student groups are pressing Canadian Blood Services to end the agency's blood donor ban on sexually active gay men, despite the agency's 2007 decision to stick with the status quo.

Canadian Federation of Students spokeswoman Amanda Aziz said the policy is outdated, discriminatory and needs to be changed.

"I think that it's a form of institutionalized discrimination," said Aziz, the federation's national chairperson.

The blood agency's questionnaire screens out any man who has had sex with another man at least once since 1977.
 
The national student group decided to press the issue in 2006 and the cause has been taken up by universities across the country, most notably at University of Toronto and McGill University, said activist Andrew Brett.