https://insiderpaper.com/germany-to-lift-restrictions-on-gay-blood-donors/

Germany to lift restrictions on gay blood donors

AFPJanuary 10, 2023 10:29 am

Germany will amend its guidelines for donating blood so the same rules apply to everyone regardless of their sexual orientation, the country’s health minister said on Tuesday.

Official guidelines will be adapted so that potential donors are no longer assessed differently based on their sexual orientation, Karl Lauterbach told the RND broadcaster.

“Whether someone can become a blood donor is a question of behavioural risk, not sexual orientation,” Lauterbach said.

“There must also be no hidden discrimination on this issue,” he added.

According to current guidelines from the German Medical Association (BAK), men who have sex with men are only allowed to donate blood if they have not had “a new or more than one sexual partner” in the past four months.

Other people are assessed on whether they are “frequently changing partners”.

The rules date back to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, when gay men were thought to carry a higher risk of passing on the virus.

Under the new rules, potential donors will be assessed only on the “basis of the individual behaviour of the person willing to donate”, according to RND.

An amendment to the law will come into force on April 1, after which the BAK will have four months to come up with new guidelines, the report said.

The German Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD) welcomed the plans, calling them “long overdue”.

Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus, a health expert for the liberal FDP party, said the previous guidelines were “not only out of date, but simply discriminatory”.

“Anyone who wants to donate blood should be able to do so. Because donating blood saves lives,” she said.

>>18117961

>>18118007

I'm practicing…i kinda suck at this…

>>18118062

>>18118007 - here's the source…

https://twitter.com/NEWSMAX/status/1612649186897563648

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/stacey-abrams-brian-kemp-beto-orourke/2023/01/09/id/1103705/

Stacey Abrams: Another run at public office "likely."

Stacey Abrams Teases Another 'Likely' Run at Political Office on TV Show

(Newsmax)

By Jay Clemons | Monday, 09 January 2023 09:10 PM EST

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Democrat Stacey Abrams has had two months to digest her most recent loss in the Georgia gubernatorial election.

And now, she is apparently thinking of running for office again.

For her interview (aired Monday) on actress Drew Barrymore's daytime TV show, Abrams admitted she will "likely" run for public office again — without specifying whether that would entail a state-level position in Georgia, or something on a national scale.

"I will likely run again," Abrams told the show, The Hill reported. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. If it doesn't work, you try again."

Abrams lost twice to GOP Gov. Brian Kemp in recent Georgia general elections.

In 2018, Abrams finished roughly 55,000 votes shy of Kemp, who had been the Georgia secretary of state for eight years (2010-18).

However, for the 2022 election, Kemp enjoyed a more decisive victory, clinching reelection by almost 300,000 votes and more than 7 percentage points.

With back-to-back defeats in the governor's race, Abrams has elicited national comparisons to Texas politician Beto O'Rourke, who has lost in gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections in recent years — despite enjoying a tremendous fundraising advantage.

In fact, as Newsmax chronicled in November, Democrats spent nearly $200 million on the campaigns for Abrams and O'Rourke; and neither candidate came close to knocking off Gov. Kemp or Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, respectively.

It can be argued whether Abrams spent her campaign war chest in the best of ways. According to a recent report from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Abrams' campaign expenses included the rental of a five-bedroom home in Atlanta to film TikTok videos.

The campaign also reportedly paid for "pop-up shops" and a "swag truck" to distribute merchandise, as a means of appealing to younger voters.

"My first responsibility is to make sure anyone who wants to vote can," Abrams said in the Drew Barrymore interview. "Protecting democracy is not about a person. It's about the ideals."

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