Starting this month, lesbians are permitted to donate blood, whereas men who have sex with men (MSM) are still banned from donating, according to the Ministry of Health.

This new regulation has attracted much online attention. One poster on Sina Weibo, China's biggest micro blogging platform, called the new rule "unfair and discriminatory."

The new guidelines are mainly because lesbians and MSMs have different ways of sexual intercourse, said Fu Qiang, vice director of Nanjing Red Cross Blood Center.

Compared to lesbians, men who have sex with men are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS. Only MSMs are not allowed to donate blood; gay men who are not sexually active are not banned, Fu added.

A recent survey shows that the transmission of HIV transmission is increasingly associated with sexual behavior.

According to the Nanjing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, over 50 percent of the city's HIV positive people in 2011 were infected as a result of MSM.

It's hard to recognize whether a blood donator is an MSM or not, which may cause a problem on the long-term, Fu said.

(China.org.cn by Ma Yujia July 10, 2012)

根据中国卫生部新规，从这个月开始，女同性恋可以献血，有性行为的男同性恋仍然被禁止。

该新规定引来众多网民的关注。一位网友在中国最大的微博平台“新浪微博”上发帖称，新规“带有歧视，男女不平等”。

对此，南京红十字血液中心副主任傅强告诉记者，这主要是因为同性恋发生性行为的方式有所不同。

相比起女同性恋，男同性恋的性行为传播疾病的几率比较大，危害较大的是艾滋病。傅强说，其实被禁的是有性行为的男同，如果只是“恋”的男同并没有被禁止。

最近的一项调查发现，性传播正快速增长，在艾滋病传播中的比例越来越大。

记者从南京市疾控中心获悉，南京2011年发现的感染者中，超过50%是经男男性接触途径感染的。

傅强表示，献血者是不是有性行为的男同性恋，真的很难从表面来判断，所以，从长远来看，这也是一个问题。