At a press briefing on Friday, Donald Trump said he “didn’t know anything” about it when asked by the Washington Blade if he had a hand in revised FDA blood donation guidelines for gay men which reduced required abstinence periods from 12 to 3 months.
GLAAD wasn’t surprised: “The inclusion of this issue in such a prominent venue is a signal to the FDA that the LGBTQ community will not stop fighting this ban until all of us can donate blood without restrictions. Trump could have used this press conference to stand with LGBTQ Americans as well as the leading medical and scientific experts who are now calling on the FDA to end the three month deferral. However, given his poor track record on LGBTQ issues and listening to science, his non-response was disappointing but not surprising.”
The Log Cabin Republicans continued to insist that Trump had a role in the change because “on March 19th, President Trump ordered the ‘removal of outdated FDA rules and bureaucracy.”
