“We should be testing the blood, that should ultimately be the standard,” said Karas.

It’s not necessarily the policy itself that Karas has the problem with, it’s that only a single community has to adhere to it.

“We don’t care if there is a deferral period, as long as it applies to everybody,” said James Hill, of HillCowan Legal Services.

In 2016, Karas walked into a donation clinic with the intent of giving blood. Although he had his blood results showing he was negative, Karas was barred for being gay.

That incident prompted him to file a discrimination complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC).

Karas and Hill embarked on a long, and sometimes slow, journey.

The CHRC looked into the complaint and, after finding it had merit, set up a mediation with Karas and his team, Blood Services Canada and Health Canada.

Mediation failed to produce a mutual settlement and Karas’s complaint has now been referred to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which is an independent body from the Commission.

Currently, Karas and counsel are waiting for further details to prepare for the tribunal.

At tribunal, there will be further investigations, witnesses and a final ruling.

No matter the outcome, the losing party has the chance to appeal the decision, potentially bringing it up the ranks to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“There is a likelihood that it would go to the Supreme Court. I really do think the respondents will review it at the federal level,” said Karas.

In the years since first filing his complaint, Karas has seen the waiting period drop from five years to one year and now three months.

Up until 2013, the MSM group faced a lifetime ban on donating blood, implemented in 1992 after a number of Canadians were given infected blood donations.

“We’ve seen progress in the waiting times but not in the inclusion of donors.”

And it's not just the MSM group who faces challenging policies to donate blood.

"There's a history here of using discriminatory basis to bar donors. And we've seen this in the United States, in the '40s, people were barred based on their skin colour. And then in Canada, we barred people who were from Africa and actually from a certain year period," said Karas.

According to Canadian Blood Services, transgender people who undergo sex reassignment surgery have to wait three months after the procedure to donate blood. All transgender people who don't undergo the surgery will be treated as their sex assigned at birth.

Karas notes that these other policies and issues also need to be addressed.

“For us to tackle other important issues, like the criminalization of HIV, we need a policy like this, that is cloaked in stigma and has a basis in prejudice, removed,” he said.

“Without it being eliminated, we won’t be able to dispel the myth around HIV, and we're not going to be able to make the changes required around other issues.”

Disclaimer: These poll results are not scientific. They are the informal findings of a survey presented to the readers of The Mississauga News and Brampton Guardian and reflect the opinions of those readers who have chosen to participate. The survey is available online to anyone who is interested in taking it.

** Editor's Note: This story was updated at 1:17 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29 to use the term transgender people when referring to members of the trans community.