Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois sent a letter this week to the Department of Health and Human Services calling for an end to the national ban on blood donation by men who have sex with men (MSM). 

Kerry and Quigley are two long-standing opponents of the so-called “gay blood ban,” which prohibits any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 from donating blood. Now they’re advocating for a pilot study to review the policy and determine whether or not it’s relevant, especially considering modern blood-testing technology.

“We’ve been working on this a long time and I applaud [Health and Human Services] Secretary Sebelius for taking this important step toward ending the lifetime ban on gay men donating blood, and instead relying on the science of today not the myths of 20 years ago,” Kerry said in a statement. “I’m confident that the findings of these new studies will pave the way to get this policy off the books.”

Such important allies, these two are. I really hope this study gets off the ground. It’s time for this policy to go.