Sir, – My proudest moment during this year’s Dublin Pride was seeing a queue of younger people at the Irish Blood Transfusion Service tent in Merrion Square after the Pride march, something that seemed impossible just 10 years ago (“The Irish Times view on the Pride Festival: the long road to equality,” June 26th).As Dublin Pride 2016 wound its way to a conclusion 10 years ago this month, then minister for health Simon Harris confirmed he would accept the recommendations of the Irish blood service to reduce its lifetime ban on blood donations from men who had had sex with men to a 12-month ban, signalling the end of an unjustified 30-year policy.Stephen Donnelly would later follow this in 2021 and 2022 with a further reduction to four months first, followed by the removal and replacement of the ban with an individualised risk assessment for all prospective blood donors, regardless of sexual orientation.As an openly gay man and an active and enthusiastic blood donor since the age of 18, I wasn’t sure I would ever see these two significant parts of my life coming together, but last weekend they did just that. With stickers declaring “Proud to be a blood donor” on a rainbow background, it’s now safe to say that Ireland has moved forward significantly in the last 10 years.Not only do we have marriage equality and legal recognition for transgender people, we have a blood service that has taken science and evidence and put these at the core of its policymaking to ensure that not only is blood safe to give to those in need, but it is also collected fairly, without the old unjustified prejudices of decades past.This year was a special Dublin Pride for me because I got to see something I genuinely was never certain would happen: the blood service recruiting new LGBTQ donors at a Pride event.Blood donation and living my true authentic self have changed my life forever and I hope younger LGBTQ people find the same joy and gift in becoming blood donors and living as their true selves too. – Yours, etc,TOMÁS HENEGHAN,Co Waterford.