Gay men allowed to donate blood

From 1 March, gay and bisexual men in Denmark will again be allowed to donate blood, and this change will also apply in the Faroes.

The law change was approved in August 2018, but it will only come into effect this year.

Danish rules different from Faroese

In Denmark, the new rules will allow sexually active gay men in monogamous relationships to donate blood, with all other gay men allowed to donate blood after four months without sex. In the Faroes, this suspension period is six months.

Eiler Fagraklett, a committee member of LGBT Føroyar, is pleased to see the ban being lifted, but he finds it perplexing that the Faroese rules are stricter than the Danish.

“I see the lifting of the ban as a sign of acceptance and understanding of gay men as a social group,” he says. “But I find it a bit discriminatory that there is a six-month suspension period in the Faroe Islands when it is four months in Denmark and only three in the UK.

Translated by prosa.fo