Greece’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, has reinstated the country’s ban on blood donations from gay men, reversing a 2022 Health Ministry decision that had lifted the decades-old restriction.
The original ban was introduced during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s, a time when widespread fear and stigma drove public health policy. In its ruling, the court stated that the Health Ministry had failed to present scientific evidence to justify lifting the restriction and had not adhered to recommendations from two advisory health committees. These panels had advised introducing deferral periods for donors considered high-risk, rather than scrapping the ban altogether, according to Greek news outlet Kathimerini.
While Greece has recently been praised for advancing LGBTQ+ rights, this development signals a troubling reversal. Alongside the blood donation ban’s reinstatement, Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis recently announced changes to the civil code that will further restrict surrogacy access. “We are now clarifying unequivocally that the concept of inability to carry a pregnancy does not refer to an inability arising from one’s gender,” Floridis told reporters. The proposed changes would effectively prohibit single men—gay or straight—as well as male same-sex couples, from pursuing surrogacy.
Despite this recent regression, Greece made headlines last year for legalising same-sex marriage, becoming the first country with an Orthodox Christian majority to do so. In recent years, it has also banned conversion therapy and outlawed non-consensual surgeries on intersex infants.
Transgender rights have also seen progress. In 2017, Greece passed the Legal Gender Recognition Law, which allows individuals to change their legal gender without undergoing medical procedures.
Meanwhile, in the United States, blood donation guidelines have moved in the opposite direction. In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated its policies to be more inclusive. The focus shifted from sexual orientation to specific risk behaviours, such as having multiple partners or engaging in anal sex, with a three-month deferral period before donation. Additional rules apply to those on PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), including a two-year deferral for users of injectable forms of the medication, which can conceal early HIV infections.
The FDA emphasised that all donated blood is tested for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and other transmissible diseases, and that the updated approach aims to balance safety with fairness in donor eligibility.
