The FDA's ban on blood donations from gay or bisexual men has received renewed scrutiny after the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday, June 12. Though the FDA has long claimed that its policy protects the blood supply, the truth is that it is unscientific and discriminatory. Here's why lawmakers are correct to denounce it:

The FDA made a small and insignificant change to the policy at the end of 2014; whereas gay and bisexual men were previously banned from blood donation for life, they are currently banned for "only" a year since their last sexual encounter - meaning, of course, that there is still an effective lifetime ban on non-celibate gay and bisexual men. Especially since HIV can now be detected in blood "as little as just a week after exposure" and new technologies have almost completely eliminated the risk of HIV transmission through blood donated in high-income countries in general, there's little basis for such a long deferral period for people who have actually engaged in high-risk behaviors, let alone those, like many gay and bisexual men, who haven't.