UPDATED: March 1, 2013, at 8:26 a.m.

Members of Harvard College Queer Students and Allies and the Harvard Libertarian Forum gathered Thursday evening to seal and send off a box filled with 1,624 letters for the Food and Drug Administration.

The letters, signed by approximately a quarter of Harvard undergraduates, protested a government policy that universally bans men who have had sex with other men from donating blood.

Over a six-week period last semester, the campaigners visited every dining hall to collect signatures and raise awareness among students.

The policy, a holdover from the era of the AIDS epidemic, effects a lifetime ban on blood donation for males who have had sex with another male since 1977.

The members of both organizations decided to start thecampaign when they noticed that despite frequent blood drives at Harvard, there was little dialogue on campus about the ban, which they called archaic, judgmental, and ineffective.

Students were extremely receptive, and [for] others that werent, we had a chance to engage with the issue, which is really valuable, too, said Benjamin L. DeVore 15, a former political co-chair of the QSA.

Though they acknowledged that theirs was an unusual partnership, both groups said that their interests aligned perfectly on the issue.

We come from the standpoint that the government shouldnt be intervening in medical affairs, said Corinne H. Curcie 15, president of the Libertarian Forum.

Every unit of donated blood gets tested for HIV, said Curcie, who also referred to a study by the American Medical Association that called the policy ethically inconsistent with the FDAs other regulations.

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QSA, Libertarian Forum Protest Blood Donation Policy