When the Food and Drug Administration’s Blood Products Advisory Panel met earlier this month to discuss lifting the ban that prohibits gay men from donating blood, it decided not to vote on the issue and instead call on further research before revoking the ban, Mother Jones reports.

The current policy states that men who have sex with men (MSM) are not allowed to donate blood if they’ve had gay sex any time since 1977. Many activists and health experts argue that the 32-year-old ban is outdated.

Last month, a committee organized by the Department of Health and Human Services voted 16-2 to allow men to donate blood as long as they hadn’t had sex with another man in the past year.