Can it be true? Gays are banned from donating blood!

This has been going on for quite a while- Should they be banned? Probably not- Do they have more chance for having disease in their blood? I think the chance of being HIV + is higher, but other than that no- Isn't the blood donated tested for HIV, and other diseases? I would certainly hope so -- I hope I don't need anyone's blood- So if it is tested before going to the blood bank- why can't homosexual men donate blood? Would I willingly take blood if I knew it was from a gay man? Of course if I needed it- I would just expect the blood to have been tested prior- but I would expect that from any blood that I needed!

Old habits die hard. When the ban was imposed they were one of the most likely to have AIDS and tests were not that reliable or efficient in the early stages of the disease. I mean, contaminated people would still test negative due to the limitations of the methods. It is not discrimination it's only that things are not easy to change or there is no strong reason.