The Food and Drug Administration released a proposal Tuesday that would lift a major ban on who can donate blood. For the first time in decades, bisexual and gay men would be able to donate with less restriction.

The proposal has been anticipated for months, according to LA Times. The FDA shared draft regulations that would lift the ban stating that any man who has had sexual intercourse with a man at least one time since 1977 cannot donate blood.

The new regulations state that any healthy man who has not engaged in sexual activity with another man for at least one year can donate blood. Countries such as Britain, Japan, Australia and Sweden have already embraced the one-year deferral policy.

Critics say that the new rules do not take into account diagnostic tools that can detect HIV infection as early as 11 days after exposure, according to the New York Times.  The contested section of the proposal, which remained unchanged Tuesday, states that the policy is open to the public for discussion for 60 days before a final decision can be reached, according to Associated Press.

The proposal also allows donors to report their genders. Under the current policy, a donor’s eligibility is only based on the person’s sex at birth. This gives transgender Americans the opportunity to report their genders as they see fit.

The original ban was instated in 1985 when the AIDS epidemic was just beginning to hit the U.S. It has long been criticized the medical community members and viewed as a civil rights issue.

HIV’s presence in the gay community is still concerning when it comes to giving blood. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention reported that men who are sexually involved with other men made up 7 percent of men in the U.S. in 2011, but  yet they made up 57 percent of the people living with HIV.