Worst of all, the ban on gay men [donating blood and bone marrow] who have had sex within the past five years doesn't eliminate the most at-risk class. Gay men, as the first group really devastated by AIDS in the early and mid 1980's, caught on to prevention very quickly. We learned the most common disease vectors, shunned risky behaviors, and really led the fight for education and prevention while the policy of not only the government but the average person on the street was to stick our proverbial head up in the proverbial sand. If the FDA was serious about shunning classes of people at risk for HIV infection, they would ban young black women from donating since they're now the fastest growing sector. If the FDA were to do that, there would be such an outcry that the people who tried to enforce that regulation would end up on the bread line in the morning. As it should be, because like I said modern screening and testing render such a ban unnecessary.