Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) reiterated his push toward repealing the Food and Drug Administration’s policy of barring gay men from donating blood during the FDA’s Blood Products Advisory Committee hearing on Monday.

“It’s past time that we examine scientifically and medically sound alternatives to the blanket ban on gay men giving blood,” Kerry said. “The science regarding HIV/AIDS contraction has advanced dramatically in the last three decades, and our understanding of what constitutes high risk behavior has grown far beyond the ignorant idea that sexual orientation is an indicator in itself. I trust that, as we move forward in this process, we will be guided by science rather than the past in determining the best screening policies to help make our blood supply even safer for all who depend on it.”

The current policy bars any man from donating blood if they’ve had sex with another man since 1977. The same policy allows heterosexual men and women who have had sexual contact with an HIV-positive partner to give blood after only a one-year waiting period.

Kerry’s full testimony to the Department of Health and Human Services in early June can be viewed here.

On June 11 the Federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability ruled 9-6 that the ban would stand, a move that was not well received by LGBTQ rights activists or allied congressional leaders.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry (D) and Illinois Representative Mike Quigley (D) led a group of legislators in issuing a joint statement in support for amending the ban, stating, “There is no prescribed consideration of safer sex practices. Individuals who routinely practice unsafe heterosexual sex face no deferral period at all, while monogamous and married homosexual partners who practice safe sex are banned for life.”

The American Association of Blood Banks and the American Red Cross agreed that the FDA ban was unwarranted and had instead recommended a one-year period of abstinence by gay and bisexual men. They said the waiting period offered enough time to screen out blood infected with HIV.