ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Food and Drug Administration has loosened its rules on who can donate blood, but many gay and bisexual men feel the changes are still not enough.

To address the drastic drop in blood supply during the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the FDA reduced the amount of time men who have had sex with men need to wait before giving blood, bringing the celibacy requirement down from 12 months to 3 months.

With blood banks still in need and giving blood being an easy and free option people to receive a COVID-19 antibody test, some feel they’re not being given the option to help.

“The blood is being tested for everything, the plasma is being tested for everything, so why can’t everybody do it?” said Todd Richardson with Equality Florida.

“To deny a certain group of people just because of an archaic ruling is really unfair,” added St. Pete resident Topher Larkin.

Both men feel that the change in policy did little to encourage gay men to donate blood or plasma at a time when blood banks have the highest need.

While the policy was formally changed in early April, blood banks didn’t adopt the changes immediately. One Blood, which serves a majority of Central Florida, implemented the new policy on May 15.

“OneBlood remains committed to additional research studies that can help guide future donor eligibility policies that are based on individual donation risk assessment, rather than singling out a particular group of individuals,” a statement posted to their website reads.

Larkin said what is encouraging about the change in regulation is that it got the conversation stated.

“Now, with COVID going on, we need to constantly be reminded that these discriminations are still intact and we need to start looking at how we can change it,” he said. ​