Watch: Gay Doctor's Plasma Donation Denied in COVID-19 Fight

In an interview with Vogue, Dr. Dillon Barron, at St. Francis Hospital in Chicago, explains that he was turned away from donating plasma because he is gay.

Barron, one of many doctors fighting COVID-19 on the frontlines, and his partner both tested positive for the virus and quarantined at home. After recovering from mild cases, the couple wanted to donate plasma in the effort against coronavirus but kept getting turned away. When Barron looked into the matter further, he found the FDA regulations against men who have sex with men is what prevented he and his partner from being able to donate.

Baron explains:

"I sort of perseverated on it for about a week, thinking, Here's something that has been based in homophobia, but now we're in a time where [plasma donation] could really be saving a life, and no sane person would say no to that donation. I started reaching out to politicians, lawyer friends, journalists in the area, and a lawyer friend of mine recently set me up with CBS News. We're trying to get more politicians to lobby for repealing this FDA rule, and I've learned that so many of my non-LGBTQ friends just don't know about it, so that's really the first step."

Read the interview with Barron at Vogue.

Watch the CBS interview with Barron: