France is set to lift a ban on gay men donating blood, initially introduced in the 1980s to prevent the spread of HIV.

The first step of the new law will mean gay men who have not been sexually active for the part 12 months can donate “whole blood” — the red cells, plasma and platelets.

This comes as Australian Greens Senator Robert Simms delivered his maiden speech last week, promising young LGBTI Australians that the future would be “easier” by firstly reducing the 12-month ban on gay blood donors to six months.

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Although Australia was ahead of many countries in terms of blood donations by gay men, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) stuck to its guns on the policy in 2014, when it rejected a request by the Red Cross Blood Service and The Kirby Institute to reduce the deferral period to six months.

Mr Simms urged the TGA to again review the issue due to emerging technologies in blood testing, and wrote a letter to human rights commissioner Tim Wilson asking him to investigate the policy.

French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said giving blood was an act of generosity, of civic responsibility, and the donor’s sexual orientation could not be a condition.

French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said the donor’s sexual orientation could not be a condition. Photo: Getty

“While respecting patient safety, today we are lifting a taboo,” she said at the announcement in Paris.

Ms Touraine said lifting the ban, promised by Francois Hollande in his presidential campaign, would happen in stages, starting in 2016.

“At first, donation of “whole blood” — the red cells, plasma and platelets — will be open to gay men who have not been sexually active for the preceding 12 months,” she said.

For donations of only plasma, the liquid component of blood, donors will be considered if they have not had sex with another man for four months, or were in a monogamous relationship.

Experts will then analyse whether the change had brought about any additional risk, after which measures may be relaxed further in 2017, the minister said.

In other countries with similar waiting periods for donors, including Australia, Britain, Japan and Sweden, rights groups criticise the measure as discriminatory, given that no similar condition exists for heterosexual men or women.

US regulators in May recommended lifting a lifetime ban on blood donations by gay men, but also with a 12-month waiting window.

On its website, the US Food and Drug Administration said men who have sex with men are “at increased risk for HIV”.

“Men who have had sex with other men represent approximately 2 per cent of the US population, yet are the population most severely affected by HIV,” it stated.

The issue is sensitive in France, where hundreds of people died in the 1980s after HIV-tainted blood was distributed by the national blood transfusion centre.

Much of the contaminated blood was exported, leading to the infection and deaths of hundreds more.

Several senior civil servants, including the head of the transfusion service, were jailed or fined.

In April this year, the EU’s top court ruled that governments could ban homosexual blood donors if they could show it was the best way to limit the risk of HIV infection.

– with ABC