In an article by state-owned Russia Today, a Moscow Mayoral candidate said he wants to re-introduce Russia’s ban on gay blood and organ donations. Mikhail Degtyarev said the house is also working on a bill to allow ex-gay conversion therapy.

From Russia Today:

"We will suggest amendments to the law on donors that reintroduce homosexuality to the list of contraindications for blood donations in Health Ministry instructions," said State Duma MP Mikhail Degtyarev, who is also a Moscow mayoral candidate from the populist-nationalist party LDPR.

The politician told a news conference in Moscow that in his view such a step could not be considered discriminatory, as 65 percent of all HIV-positive persons are homosexuals. Degtyarev did not give the source of this statistics.

Degtyarev also added that the lower house was working on the initiative to offer gays voluntary anonymous consultations with psychologists, psychotherapists and sexologists that would help them to "return to normal life and become heterosexuals, as are 95 to 99 percent of our citizens."

Russia got rid of its ban on gay blood donors in 2008. Isn’t it odd that a country that bans gay pride parades (thanks to a new law banning ‘gay propaganda’) is ahead of the United States on the blood donation issue? The FDA has banned gay men from donating blood for about 30 years now.

Alas.