New blood donation eligibility rules have officially come into effect across Australia, allowing more gay and bisexual men and transgender people in long-term monogamous relationships to donate blood and platelets for the first time.
From Monday, 20 April, all donors are being asked the same sexual activity questions in the pre-donation screening process, regardless of gender. The changes, introduced by Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, are designed to make donation rules more inclusive while still maintaining blood safety standards.
Lifeblood chief executive Stephen Cornelissen described the update as a major step forward.
“Previous donor rules prevented many people from the LGBTQIA+ community from donating blood or platelets if they’d had sex within the past three months,” he said.
“These latest changes mean many gay and bisexual men and transgender people in long-term, monogamous relationships will become eligible to donate blood or platelets for the first time.
“This is something we’ve been researching and working on for some time together with governments, LGBTQIA+ advocacy groups and the broader community, and we’re excited to be welcoming many more new donors into our centres to donate blood and platelets from today.”
The move builds on earlier changes to plasma donation rules introduced in July 2025. Those reforms removed gender-based restrictions and instead focused more directly on individual risk, allowing more LGBTQIA+ people to donate under updated screening rules.
Since those plasma reforms came into force, more than 3,000 new donors have contributed close to 10,000 plasma donations.
Cornelissen said the latest update would go even further.
“Under the updated rules, most people in long-term monogamous relationships will be able to donate blood, and many who remain ineligible will be able to donate plasma instead,” he said.
“We know previous rules have been difficult for people in the LGBTQIA+ community, so we’d like to thank them for their support during this journey towards a more inclusive donation experience.
“We hope many more people will feel welcomed in our donor centres from today, and sign up to become blood donors, as a result of this change.”
Lifeblood expects the new rules could lead to as many as 20,000 extra blood donations each year.
That increase would be significant. Across Australia, around 33,000 donations of blood, plasma and platelets are needed every week to help patients, including people undergoing cancer treatment, those living with bleeding disorders, and trauma victims.
For many LGBTQIA+ Australians, the change is more than a technical update. It marks a long-awaited shift away from blanket exclusion and towards a system that treats donors more equally.
