LGBT advocates are condemning the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on blood donations from gay men as discriminatory, The New York Times reports. An advisory board earlier this year voted to uphold the ban, but it also declared the policy “suboptimal.” The ban, enacted in 1983, prohibits any man from donating blood if he has had sex with another man any time since 1977. Opponents say the ban is scientifically unnecessary and unjustified. The Department of Health and Human Services ultimately decides whether to lift the ban but has not said when it would visit the issue.

To read the Times article, click here.