Ban was unnecessary and unjustified

The Workers Party has welcomed the  scrapping of the lifetime ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men in Northern Ireland.

This announcement. while welcome, is long overdue. It is clear that there are no medical or safety grounds on which to base the biased decision. The unnecessary ban was also accompanied by expensive legal actions, funded by the Department of Health, in some cases to pursue individual religious beliefs.

Welcome and long overdue as this announcement is there are still barriers facing the LGBT community in almost  every aspect of life: in the workplace, in education, in health and social care, in the legal system in  sport and in the community.

There is much work yet to do.