New blood donation rules open door to more LGBTQ+ donors in Australia

Australia has introduced new blood donation guidelines that will allow thousands more gay, bisexual and transgender people to donate, ending decades of restrictions rooted in the early HIV crisis.

From Monday, anyone in a monogamous relationship can donate blood immediately, provided they meet standard criteria such as age, health status and iron levels. The Australian Red Cross Lifeblood service estimates up to 20,000 additional blood donations could be collected each year under the new policy, The Guardian reports.

Until now, many LGBTQ+ people were barred from donating blood or platelets if they had engaged in sexual activity in the previous three months, even within a long-term relationship. These rules emerged in the 1980s, when there was no reliable way to detect HIV in recently infected donors.

Over time, advances in blood screening and HIV treatment have significantly reduced risk, prompting gradual changes. The deferral period after sex for many LGBTQ+ donors was reduced from lifetime bans to 12 months in 2000, and then to three months in 2021.

However, the policy had become widely criticised as discriminatory and out of step with current scientific evidence.

The revised rules remove sexuality- and gender-specific questions from the pre-donation questionnaire. All donors, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, will now be asked identical questions about their recent sexual partners and activities.

Men will no longer be asked if they have had sex with men as a standalone exclusion. Instead, risk will be assessed based on individual behaviour, such as partner numbers and recent sexual history, rather than identity.

Lifeblood’s chief executive, Stephen Cornelissen, said the organisation had “been researching and working on [the changes] for some time” and that staff were “excited to be welcoming many more new donors into our centres to donate blood and platelets from today”.

“We hope many more people will feel welcomed in our donor centres from today, and sign up to become blood donors as a result of this change,” he said.

Australia maintains one of the safest blood supply systems globally. The updated policy has been reviewed and approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the national medicines and therapeutic goods regulator.

This latest step follows changes introduced in July 2025, when sexual activity waiting periods were removed for plasma donations. That reform allowed many gay and bisexual men, and transgender women who have sex with men, to donate plasma without a three‑month deferral.

It also meant most HIV-negative people using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) could donate plasma without a waiting period, provided they met all other safety criteria.

The new rules extend a similar, behaviour-based approach to whole blood donation, further aligning Australia’s policies with contemporary science and commitments to LGBTQ+ inclusion in healthcare.

You can check your eligibility to donate here.