Find answers to common questions about blood, bone marrow, and stem cell donation, eligibility, and how you can make a difference.
Saving Lives with Pride is a nonprofit organization with the mission to promote inclusion and equity in donation policies for LGBTQ communities.
Saving Lives with Pride operates in Canada and the United States. We host stem cell registry donor recruitment events at Pride celebrations as well as events throughout the year.
You can register as a volunteer here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvvQbqC7F6R1XKMY-DR02932fyvH3kH3tT7bnvy-_9-jWlGA/viewform?usp=header
The leadership of Saving Lives with Pride comprise of LGBTQ physicians, medical students, allied healthcare members, and individuals passionate about stem cell advocacy.
Blood? Yes! In many countries across the world, blood donor eligibility criteria have evolved to permit many more LGBTQ people to donate blood, including gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men.
In Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, men who have sex with men are eligible to donate blood as long as they have not had anal sex with new sexual partners or with multiple sexual partners within the past 3 months.
Stem cells? Yes! LGBTQ people are eligible to donate stem cells, without restriction based on recent sexual contact.
Organs and tissues? Yes! LGBTQ people are eligible to register as organ and tissue donors, without restriction based on recent sexual contact.
Many people live well with HIV, in excellent health on HIV treatment and with an undetectable viral load in their blood. However, these individuals cannot donate blood, stem cells, or organs and tissues, because of the theoretical risk of HIV transmission to the recipient (for example through transfer of white blood cells such as lymphocytes, which could contain the HIV DNA). Since the patient could be sick or immunocompromised, they could also have a higher risk of HIV related complications, and so extra care is taken to lower the risk of HIV transmission with donation.
